The Green Color is the Main Theme of the Arab Cinema Magazine's Third Issue at the Dubai International Film Festival

Back to Press Releases

Casts Light on the Sustainable Development Found in the Arab Filmmaking Industry

The Green Color is the Main Theme of the Arab Cinema Magazine's Third Issue at the Dubai International Film Festival


Within its wide-ranging events at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) has released the third issue of its Arab Cinema Magazine, the first English-language publication of its kind specialized in the Arab film industry and designed to address international markets with the aim of shedding light on Arab cinema, as well as its makers, brilliant talents, as well as its great potential.

The Center rolled out the new issue with an all-green cover to match the issue's main theme. The issue offered mine ways Arab Cinema has answered the UN's goals for a sustainable planet that came in parallel with the UN's Global Climate Change talks within the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) held in Marrakesh last November, which was also highlighted in the magazine.

Film Consultant Colin Brown, Managing Partner and Director of International Operations at MAD Solutions, and also the magazine's Editorial Director, stressed in his opening letter on the reason why sustainability in filmmaking is brought into focus in this issue; "What we need instead is a more sustainable film financing and distribution environment... there is no single, universal template for independent cinema[,] which is why a sustainable ecosystem is not one based on copying the formulae that has worked before, but creating the controlled conditions under which risk is allowed to flourish and creativity allowed to flow. A laboratory, in other words, where science and magic are allowed to meet."

Maher Diab, MAD's Art Director and Co-founder, commented, "Creating this magazine allowed us to explore more interesting and rich aspects of the Arab filmmaking industry, and we are looking forward to see the same effect on the international film professionals with growing interest in the Arab film industry. In this new issue, we have added a new section that highlights young Arab acting talents whose fantastic talents enabled them to achieve notable success through their first roles. Our plan for the upcoming issues during 2017 is to introduce different sections and cover new areas in Arab cinema."

This issue highlights six of the promising Arab talents, the Arab filmmakers who made their names at the International Film Festival Rotterdam over the years, where this issue will be distributed at the festival's next edition, and the Arab stars who went Dutch and celebrated Dutch producers who worked on Arab films. As a celebration of the festival's 50th anniversary, the third issue dedicated a special article for the Carthage Film Festival by listing key 50 award-winning Arab films that came into prominence over the first 50 editions of the oldest event of its kind on the African continent and the Arab world. The issue also features an article titled "Not Lost in Translation: Arabs in Tokyo International Film Festival" that highlights the Arab cinema presence at the Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan through the years. On the occasion of releasing the new issue of the magazine during the parti-colored events of the 13thDubai International Film Festival, the third issue included an article on the groundbreaking moments in the history of the Dubai International Film Festival since its inception.

About Arab Cinema Center (ACC)

Organized by MAD Solutions, Arab Cinema Center (ACC) opened 2016 with intensive activities at the 45th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), followed by the 66th Berlinale, Doha Film Institute's Qumra, the Center's first Arab stop since its launch in 2015, in addition to the Silk Road Film Festival in Ireland, and Hong Kong International Film& TV Market (FILMART), the 69th Cannes Film Festival, the 69th Locarno Film Festival, the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, the 41st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the 2nd Film and Television Careers Connection (FTCC) in Amman, Jordan, the 6th Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF), Carthage Film Festival, the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival, and most recently the 1st Latin Arab Co-production Forum of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.


During the 2016's Cannes Film Festival, the Center launched the first issue of the Arab Cinema Magazine, the first English-language Arab publication entirely dedicated to international cinema, which will accompany the Center to shed light on the Arab film industry and the latest up and coming talents. The second issue of the Arab Cinema Magazine has been released at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.

Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides the filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes. ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others.

The Center's activities vary between film market main wings, introduction and networking sessions for Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organizations and festivals, and the issuance of the Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets.

In the beginning of this year, ACC revealed its year-round partnership with Variety magazine as the Center's media partner; in addition to a digital partnership with Festival Scope and a technology sponsorship with Striim.in to promote ACC's events in 2016. Last October, the Center signed a new sponsorship agreement with, .film, which provides domain name space for the film industry with the aim to fight copy-cat and piracy sites.