The Arab Cinema Center (ACC), organizer of the Annual Critics Awards, has announced the addition of a new sixth category as of its next edition in 2017 that will be dedicated to the Best Documentary. Besides, the ACC now offers a new service on its website that enables its users to read reviews of the nominated films.


Film Analyst Alaa Karkouti, Co-founder of the Arab Cinema Center and CEO of MAD Solutions; the company in charge of organizing the Arab Cinema Center events, said about the new service, "Even though film criticism plays an important role in the Arab film industry by helping film enthusiasts know about the industry’s latest trends and new films, there are no online platforms that can function as a reference for film enthusiasts to go to for film reviews in the Arab world. For the first time in the Arab film industry, the Arab Cinema Center is going to collect film reviews in different languages in one place. This service is going to be updated with new items during the coming period."


To read film reviews on the ACC’s website: acc.film/critics-reviews.php


Film Critic Ahmed Shawky, Manager of the Critics Awards, says, “The decision of adding the documentary award came from the jury members’ suggestions during the voting stage. The jury board will also be developed in the coming years by appointing more qualified Arab and foreign critics to enrich the awards and allow Arab critics express their point of view.”


The Critics Awards kicked off its first edition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival. The awards are given to the best Arab film productions every year in the following categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actress, and Best Actor, in addition to the newly added category, Best Documentary. The jury board brings together 24 of the best Arab and foreign critics who come from 15 countries from all over the world, which happens for the first time in Arab cinema history. The final list of nominees has been chosen according to a certain criteria that says that the films should have premiered at international film festivals outside of the Arab world during 2016, at least one of the production companies must be Arab (regardless of the size of its contribution in the production of the film), and that the films must be feature films (fiction or documentary).