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Abbout Productions, the independent Beirut-based production house led by Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine, will be handed the Raimondo Rezzonico Award for producing at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

The duo will receive the award on August 7. They will also present two of their titles, Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl, and Memory Box by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

Georges Schoucair became the CEO of Abbout Productions in 2004, and Myriam Sassine joined as lead producer in 2010.

In recent years, Schoucair and Sassine have produced films such as Costa Brava, Lebanon, Memory Box, and works by local filmmakers like Ahmad Ghossein, Mohamed Malas, Ghassan Salhab, Oualid Mouannes, Cyril Aris, Ely Dagher, Rana Eid, and Myriam El Hajj, whose Diaries from Lebanon premiered in Berlinale Panorama in 2024.

Schoucair and Sassine have also been prominent advocates for cinema in the Mena region. Schoucair played a pivotal role...

Beirut-based Abbout Productions, led by Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine, will be celebrated by the Locarno Film Festival with its Raimondo Rezzonico Award dedicated to producers who epitomize the indie ethos.

Schoucair founded Abbout Productions in 2004 with Sassine joining as lead producer in 2010. They have been nurturing a network of Lebanese and Arab filmmakers amid difficult and often catastrophic circumstances, fighting to keep indie cinema alive in the region by shepherding a wide range of Arab and Lebanese feature films and launching them internationally.

Films produced by Schoucair and Sassine in recent years include “Costa Brava, Lebanon” (Venice Orizzonti, 2021); “Memory Box” (Berlinale Competition, 2021) and other works by local filmmakers such as Ahmad Ghossein, Mohamed Malas, Ghassan Salhab, Oualid Mouannes, Cyril Aris, Ely Dagher, Rana Eid and Myriam El Hajj, whose “Diaries From Lebanon” premiered in Berlinale Panorama in 2024.

Schoucair and Sassine have also co-produced several award-winning international films through their...

Beirut-based Abbout Productions, led by Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine, will receive Locarno Film Festival’s producing prize, the Raimondo Rezzonico Award, at its upcoming 78th edition, which runs August 6-16.

Schoucair and Sassine will also present two of their films, Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl and Memory Box by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, at the festival.

Schoucair took over as CEO of Abbout Productions in 2004, with Sassine joining as lead producer in 2010. They have since shepherded an array of Arab and Lebanese feature films into existence and onto the international distribution marketplace.

In recent years, Schoucair and...

The independent Beirut-based production house Abbout Productions, led by Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine, will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.

The production firm will also present two of its movies at Locarno, namely Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl, and Memory Box by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

“In recent years, Georges Schoucair, who took over as CEO of Abbout Productions in 2004, and Myriam Sassine, who joined as lead producer in 2010, have shepherded an array of acclaimed Arab and Lebanese feature films into existence and onto the international distribution marketplace,” Locarno organizers said. “A vital production and distribution hub for the region, Abbout Productions has sustained a network of Lebanese and Arab artists and filmmakers who, despite difficult and often catastrophic circumstances, fight to create independent cinema in the region.”

The company’s movies have also included works by such local filmmakers as Ahmad Ghossein,...

Films by Pierre Creton, Ghassan Salhab and Mariano Llinás are among the line-up of the FIDMarseille international film festival in France (June 25-30).

The international competition features 13 world premieres and one international premiere, including Night Is Day from Lebanese filmmaker Salhab which chronicles the uprising in Lebanon.

French filmmaker Creton, who won the Sacd prize for best French-language feature at last year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, co-directs with Vincent Barré on 7 Walks With Mark Brown, described as an essay on attention and friendship.

Also in competition is Kunst De Farbe from Argentina, 1985 screenwriter Llinás exploring themes of music, painting and cinema.

Cairo-based Mad Distribution has acquired Jonathan Millet’s Critics’ Week opener Ghost Trail from mk2 Films, Somali director Mo Harawe’s Un Certain Regard drama The Village Next To Paradise from Totem Films and Anne-Marie Jacir’s upcoming All Before You for release in the Middle East and North Africa.

They are three of 30 titles secured by Mad Distribution for Mena territories, which also include Saif Hammash’s Palestinian short Deer’s Tooth, selected for La Cinef, and Rayane Mcirdi’s Algerian-French short After The Sun, which plays in Directors’ Fortnight.

The distribution arm of indie studio Mad Solutions plans...

Newly launched Dubai-based sales company Mad World has acquired worldwide rights to Lebanese auteur Ghassan Salhab’s genre-bending next project “The Last City,” which is set in a collapsing Beirut that has fallen prey to vampires.

Salhab, 66, who was born in Senegal to Lebanese parents, is considered one of Lebanon’s standout arthouse directors, known for works such as “Terra Incognita” (2002), The Last Man (2006), “The Mountain” (2011) and “The Valley” (2014), which have premiered at top festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and Toronto.

The narrative structure of Salhab’s latest project – which he plans to start shooting this winter – is divided into five non-consecutive nights that retrace the final weeks of the Lebanese capital, which is “under the sway of vampires in search of new victims who have become increasingly rare,” as the provided synopsis puts it.

“’The Last City’ is in a way – more than 15 years later – a sequel to my film ‘The Last Man,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSGoodbye, Dragon Inn.It’s getting harder to go to the movies. IndieWire surveys the state of cinemagoing in the US region by region as multiplexes continue to shutter. From downtown Detroit, the closest first-run theater is now in Canada.More than 500 pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged a sit-in at MoMA on Saturday, protesting the museum trustees’ alleged investments in weapons used by the Israeli military in Gaza. The museum closed its doors to the public and rescheduled planned programming.After confirming that three sitting representatives of the far-right AfD party had been invited to tomorrow night’s Berlinale opening ceremony, amid public outcry, the festival has now disinvited them.REMEMBERINGRocky II.The tributes to Carl Weathers continue to roll in after his death last week at the...

Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (Dfi) kicks off the 10th edition of its Qumra project and talent incubator event meeting this Friday.

Running from March 1 to 6 in downtown Doha and the lofty surroundings of the city’s I. M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art, the event will welcome the filmmakers and producers of 40 projects across all formats for six days of masterclasses, workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions.

Participants include UK director Ana Naomi de Sousa with Naseem, Fight With Grace about boxing star Naseem Hamed; Moroccan filmmaker Alaa Eddine Aljem with Eldorado, The Taste of the South, his second feature after Cannes Critics’ Week title The Unknown Saint; Tunisian director Mehdi Barsaoui with Aïcha, which follows 2019 drama A Son for which Sami Bouajila won Best Actor in the Venice’s Horizons sidebar, and Palestinian director Saleh Saadi with TV series Dyouf, about a young man who returns to his...

Festival has programmed 75 films from 36 countries.

The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 20th edition, which runs from November 24-December 2.

The festival is opening with Richard Linklater’s action comedy Hit Man, starring Glen Powell, and is screening 75 films in total from 36 countries.

Marrakech’s official competition, which comprises first and second feature films, includes Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Cannes Competition title Banel & Adama, Lina Soualem’s Venice Giornate degli Autori documentary Bye Bye Tiberias and Moroccan director Kamal Lazraq’s feature debut Hounds, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Scroll down for full line-up

Johnny Barrington,...

Three months ago, Doha’s new Downtown Msheireb district was the throbbing heart of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as one of its main fan zones.

Quiz any local on the street or in its cafes and shops about what it was like, and their faces light up as they recount how packed it was and the magical atmosphere.

Billed as the world’s first sustainable downtown regeneration project, the pedestrianized neighborhood is now acting as the backdrop to the Doha Film Institute’s annual Qumra talent incubator, alongside the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art (Mia).

The event, which kicked off on Friday, aims to hothouse 44 film and series projects in various formats and stages of production. All the projects are recipients of the Dfi’s generous grant program

The focus is on Middle East and North African filmmakers but there are also projects from further afield...

Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro has come to Saudi Arabia for the first time to serve on the jury panel for the works-in-progress showcase at the Red Sea Film Festival’s industry section, the Red Sea Souk. A former head of the Venice Critics’ Week, Nazzaro has been tracking Arabic cinema for a while and programming pics that are breaking its mold. He spoke to Variety about the challenges directors from the region face as they try to do new things.

My impression is that Arab directors these days are less beholden to an auteur vision of cinema. Do you agree?

This is something that has been going on for quite some time. The fact is there has been a great change of paradigm within cinema from the Arab world and from the Mena region at large. This is largely because institutions such as the Doha Film Institute...

Bassem Breche raised controversy with his maternal melodrama “Riverbed” following its world premiere at Cairo Film Festival.

The story, a Lebanon and Qatar production shown in the Horizons of Arab Cinema section, sees a mother (Carole Abboud) and her pregnant daughter (Omaya Malaaeb) reunite under dramatic circumstances.

While it picked up multiple gongs at the fest, including one for Abboud’s performance and a special jury award, it also ruffled some feathers, mostly due to its depictions of female sexuality and abortion.

“During a Q&a at the festival, the conversation ended up focusing entirely on abortion. It was tough for me. I wasn’t expecting that,” Breche tells Variety after the ceremony.

“I don’t think anyone sets out to make ‘controversial’ films. I just have so many questions about families in general, I am interested in them. In the film, I am not wondering if abortion is halal...

Al Naher Review — Al Naher (2021) Film Review from the 74th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Ghassan Salhab, starring Yumna Marwan and Ali Suliman. Amidst the rural Lebanese landscape, a woman and a man (Yumna Marwan and Ali Suliman) are suddenly left alone. The restaurant staff at the café where they were [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Al Naher: A Sparse Emotional Thriller Awash in Allegory [Locarno 2021]...

Lebanon’s leading avant-garde filmmaker Ghassan Salhab has always been unapologetically art house, scraping away at traditional forms of narrative to create elliptical works reliant on unfussy compositions and layered sound design. His films explore liminal emotional states connected with Lebanon’s troubled history, capturing a sense of disturbance that practically quivers with unexpressed tension. His latest, “The River,” concludes a trilogy consisting of “The Mountain” and “The Valley,” and while it’s his most objectively beautiful feature yet, it also gives nothing away, demanding a heightened engagement with both his artful mise-en-scène and his nation’s psychological state. As such, “The River” will meander through the more experimental waters of festivals and showcases where Salhab may even pick up new acolytes thanks to the film’s striking aesthetic.

Of the three films, “The Valley” had the most of what could vaguely be called a plot, though its concerns went...

Year after year a site par excellence for the most innovative premieres—in that respect an antithesis to the ensuing fall circuit—the Locarno Film Festival returns triumphant next month. Their 2021 lineup, per usual, mixes iconic names with complete unknowns and, admittedly, a head-scratcher or two. Abel Ferrara’s much-anticipated Zeros and Ones, sure. Gaspar Noé’s Vortex—makes sense. A new film from The Wild Boys director Bertrand Mandico? Great! But Shawn Levy and a Jennifer Hudson Aretha Franklin biopic?

However, new festival head Giona A. Nazzaro sees it as part of a steady influx, telling Variety “A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time. That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films.” By that metric it’s more inclusive than almost any other major competition on the European circuit.

After Blue (Paradis sale)The lineup for the 2021 festival has been revealed, including new films by Bertrand Mandico, Axelle Ropert, Abel Ferrara and others, alongside retrospectives and tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEBeckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino)Free Guy (Shawn Levy)Heat (Michael Mann)Hinterland (Stefan Ruzowitzky)Ida Red (John Swab)Monte Verità (Stefan Jäger)National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis)Respect (Liesl Tommy)Rose (Aurélie Saada)Sinkhole (Kim Ji-hoon)The Alleys (Bassel Ghandour)The Terminator (James Cameron)Vortex (Gaspar Noé)Yaya e Lennie — The Walking Liberty (Alessandro Rak)Tomorrow My Love (Gitanjali Rao)Lynx (Laurent Geslin)Zeros and OnesCONCORSO INTERNAZIONALEAfter Blue (Paradis sale) (Bertrand Mandico)Al Naher (The River) (Ghassan Salhab)Espíritu sagrado (The Sacred Spirit) (Chema García Ibarra)Gerda (Natalya Kudryashova)I giganti (The Giants) (Bonifacio Angius)Jiao ma teng hui (A New Old Play) (Jiongjiong Qiu)Juju StoriesLa Place d'une autre (Secret Name) (Aurélia Georges)Leynilögga (Cop Secret...

With Cannes right around the corner, two more prominent European film festivals announced their official lineups for 2021 this week. The 2021 Locarno Film Festival (the 74th edition of the event) is taking place August 4-14 and will feature the world premiere of Abel Ferrara’s “Zeroes and Ones,” plus the Melissa Leo-Frank Grillo starring thriller “Ida Red” from director John Swab. Perhaps the most prominent U.S. title in the Locarno lineup is “Respect,” the Jennifer Hudson-starring Aretha Franklin biopic that has already caught the eye of Oscar pundits here in the states. The film will screen out of competition, as will Ryan Reynolds’ long-delayed Disney-Fox tentpole “Free Guy.”

“A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time,” Nazzaro told Variety in a statement. “That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films.

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller ’Zeros And Ones’ stars Ethan Hawke.

Abel Ferrara’s contemporary thriller Zeros And Ones and Srdjan Dragojević’s dark comedy Heavens Above are among 17 films from 12 countries having their world premiere in the international competition at the 74th Locarno Film Festival (August 4-14) under the new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Scroll down for full line-up

In his first collaboration with Ferrara, Zeros And Ones sees Ethan Hawke plays an American soldier stationed in Rome who pursues an unknown enemy threatening the entire world after the Vatican gets blown up.

Ahead of shooting in Italy...

Lebanese director and screenwriter Ghassan Salhab’s movies unfold like essays, exploring the way individuals operate in the socio-political circumstances of their environment. His six feature films are hypnotic and explorative, trying to make sense of a world faced with the threat of war, and the internal struggles that occur in the minds of troubled individuals in an oppressive society. Salhab’s third full length effort, “The Last Man,” is no different: although appearing on the surface as a classic vampire movie, it explores the inability of the Lebanese government to effectively deal with immediate threats within their country when faced with the fear of rapidly-escalating dilemmas occurring elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Last Man is screening at Alfilm

Khalil lives a peaceful life, alternating between his profession as a doctor, his passion with a female lover, and the hobby of deep sea exploration which he commits to in his spare time.

The seventh edition nurtured 48 short and feature-length projects across some 700 online meetings.

The Doha Film Institute’s annual talent and project development event Qumra usually culminates in a lively outdoor party amid the dunes of Qatar’s Sealine Desert.

With this year’s seventh edition moving online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it wrapped very differently.

Participants simply logged off the dedicated Qumra online platform and returned to their locked-down realities in cities as geographically diverse as Beirut, Tunis, Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, New York, Los Angeles, Dar es Salem, Manila, Phnom Penh and, for the participating Qatari filmmakers,...

The Museum of Modern Art has unveiled the festival lineup for Doc Fortnight 2021, the 20th edition of its annual showcase of nonfiction films from around the globe. Over 18 documentary features and four short films will be screened as part of the festival.

In a concession to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s films will be offered exclusively on MoMA’s Virtual Cinema from March 18 to April 5, 2021. The festival boasts two world premieres and numerous North American debuts. Doc Fortnight 2021 will kick off with the New York premiere of Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath,” a look at the origins and spread of Covid-19, charting its early days in Wuhan, China to its deadly rampage through the United States. The festival is truly global in scope including filmmakers from Lebanon, Cameroon, Brazil and Morocco, among many other countries.

The closing night film is “Les sorcières de l’Orient (Oriental Witches...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Jean-Luc Godard at the 2018 press conference for The Image Book.From longtime collaborator Fabrice Aragno on Facebook comes word of a new Jean-Luc Godard project. We don't know much, but it appears that the movie will be shot on film, perhaps Godard's first since Notre Musique in 2004 and a shift from his 2018 digital essay film, The Image Book. Park Chan-wook's new film will be a romantic murder mystery starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il (who previously starred in The Host), entitled Decision to Leave. The film is said to be the story of a police officer who suspects a dead man's wife of his murder. Recommended VIEWINGThe Wexner Center for the Arts' series Cinetracts '20 is now available for free online. Artists from around the world including Charles Burnett, Cauleen Smith, Tony Buba,...

Upcoming titles include ‘The River’, directed by Ghassan Salhab.

Producer Tania El Khoury, who runs Beirut-based Khamsin Films, has revealed the ambitions for her new French production company, Les films de l’Altaï, during Sarajevo’s CineLink platform.

The company, founded earlier this year, has been established partly in response to the dire economic situation in Lebanon.

“All the producers and filmmakers in Lebanon are confronting the economic crisis,” said El Khoury. “The banks are not giving people money. I am lucky that I am based in France. For example [on Lebanese film] The River, I can pay for things from France to people working on the film.

“People wanted to be productive and help the filmmaking community.”

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has released first data for the online edition of its sixth annual talent incubator meeting Qumra. It set up the digital iteration at top speed after the physical event had to be abandoned at the 11th hour due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the course of the five-day virtual event, running March 20 to 25, the Dfi organised 220 online mentoring sessions and fostered a further 200 connections between projects and potential industry and festival partners.

All the original 46 projects from 20 countries participated in the initiative, working with 34 mentors from 18 countries,...

Rithy Panh, Karim Ainouz, Annemarie Jacir, Tala Hadid, Ghassan Salhab join efforts to continue key project development activities.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has set up an online mentorship programme to replace its Qumra talent and project development event which was cancelled earlier this month due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 46 projects were to have received support and advice from some 100 industry professionals at the sixth edition of the meeting, originally scheduled to run March 20-25 in Doha.

French director Claire Denis, Greek cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, Us director James Gray, Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner and Oscar-winning sound editor...

Twice Academy Award-nominated writer-director Hany Abu-Assad is teaming with Abbout Productions, Lebanon’s top indie shingle, on TV series project “The King’s Wives.”

The six-episode fiction, pitched Feb. 25 at the 2020 Berlinale Co-Pro Series, is set to be the first TV drama produced by Abbout, a Beirut-set production house run by Georges Schoucair, best known to date for films with a distinctly Arab voice.

Scheduled to shoot from fall 2021 in Morocco or Turkey, “The King’s Wives” is conceived as a multicultural project, with Palestinian-Dutch Abu-Assad as co-creator and showrunner, production by a Lebanese team, with a cast coming from all over the Arab world and international heads of departments.

A TV drama with humorous elements, set in a modern unnamed Arab monarchy, “The King’s Wives” follows Zein, a revolutionary princess who wants to challenge the monarchy and improve women’s rights.

She aligns with her progressive husband, Prince Malik,...

The River

For his fifth feature-length production, Senegal’s Ghassan Salhab embarks on The River, a French co-production, like several of his past features, set in Lebanon. Produced through Lebanon’s Khamsin Films and France’s Surviance, the title stars Ali Suliman. Salhab’s 2002 film Terra incognita premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and his 2006 feature The Last Man competed in Locarno under Filmmakers of the Present.

Gist: A young woman and man meet for lunch in restaurant nestled in the mountainous regions of Lebanon.…...

French sales companies to merge staff, infrastructure and slates.

Jour2Fête, the Paris-based sales and distribution company co-headed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier, is set to acquire compatriot sales company Doc & Film International, as its CEO Daniela Elstner heads to French cinema agency Unifrance in the role of managing director.

Under the deal, which is in the final stages of completion, Jour2Fête will merge the existing staff, infrastructure, slates and catalogues of both companies into one entity over the coming months.

For the time being, the separate banners of Jour2Fête and Doc & Film will remain in place,...

Respected international sales veteran replaces outgoing Isabelle Giordano.

Sales veteran Daniela Elstner, best known as the head of Paris-based sales company Doc & Film International, has been appointed as the new managing director of French cinema promotional body Unifrance.

She replaces Isabelle Giordano who is leaving at the end of July after six years in the role.

The appointment was overseen by Unifrance president Serge Toubiana who was unanimously re-elected for another two-year term last week.

“I’m overjoyed that Daniela Elstner, a major figure in the export of French cinema, who is recognised throughout the profession for her knowledge...

Industry event featuring pitches, work in progress screenings, mentoring sessions and masterclasses wrapped on Wednesday.

The Doha Film Institute wrapped a successful fifth edition of its respected Qumra industry event on Wednesday.

The five-day meeting, running March 15-20, followed its tried and tested formula of pitches, work in progress screenings, mentoring sessions and masterclasses around 36 projects backed by the Dfi, in an informal, friendly atmosphere.

Industry professionals – spanning producers, directors, festival programmers and sales agents – heaped praise on the fifth edition as it came to an end with its traditional open-air party in the Qatari desert.

“To my knowledge, it...

Selection includes 39 titles and 31 world premieres.

This year’s Forum programme at the Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) will feature 39 films, including 31 world premieres.

The Forum brings together challenging and thought-provoking filmmaking that brings together film with visual art, theatre and literature.

Highlights include a Super 8 silent vision of Elfriede Jelinek’s ghost novel ’Die Kinder der Toten’ in a film of the same name by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska, Ghassan Salhab’s “essayistic collage” An Open Rose for which the filmmaker has used the letters from prison by Polish Marxist Rosa Luxembourg, and the documentary Landless, the...

The Berlin International Film Festival on Friday unveiled the lineup for its Forum sidebar of avant-garde cinema, with fictional and documentary titles from across Europe, Africa and South America among the highlights.

Literary adaptations — from Rita Azevedo Gomes’s costume drama The Portuguese Woman, based on the Robert Musil novella, to Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska's adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s ghost novel The Children of the Dead to Ghassan Salhab’s essayistic collage An Open Rose, inspired by letters from prison from legendary leftist martyr Rosa Luxemburg — are a major focus in the Forum program this year.

The ...

The Berlin International Film Festival on Friday unveiled the lineup for its Forum sidebar of avant-garde cinema, with fictional and documentary titles from across Europe, Africa and South America among the highlights.

Literary adaptations — from Rita Azevedo Gomes’s costume drama The Portuguese Woman, based on the Robert Musil novella, to Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska's adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s ghost novel The Children of the Dead to Ghassan Salhab’s essayistic collage An Open Rose, inspired by letters from prison from legendary leftist martyr Rosa Luxemburg — are a major focus in the Forum program this year.

The ...

Eleven films focused on Lebanon, screened over the past week at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, conveyed a rich caravan of images and ideas from the war-torn country – many of which presented in-depth looks at life seemingly having nothing to do with bombshells.

The full range of life, art and social discourse was indeed the goal of the section titled Lebanon: Between Ashes and Roses, according to Ji.hlava’s Rene Kubasek.

He explains the section, a first for the fest, grew organically from the body of work Ji.hlava organizers noticed was on the rise last year.

“At our 2017 edition we ended up having five Lebanon-produced films in our competition sections,” Kubasek says, “and we realized that Lebanon has lately been producing a few of the most interesting additions to contemporary world cinema.”

After some organizing and surveying, which also turned up many Czech documentarians working on projects in or about Lebanon,...

10th edition of lab selects 12 projects.

French festival FIDMarseille, known for its focus on experimental, boundary-pushing work spanning both documentary and fiction, has unveiled the selection of projects due to be presented at the 10th edition of its project development event.

Running July 12-13, the FIDLab will feature 12 projects, selected out of 322 submissions.

They includeThe River, the latest film from Lebanese filmmaker Ghassan Salhab after his well-travelled, awarding-winning dramas The Valley and The Mountain.

It revolves around a younger woman and older man whose lunch in a mountain restaurant is disrupted by fighter planes overhead, pushing them out into nature...

34 short and feature projects were announced in Berlin.

Film producer Wendi Deng Murdoch, RadicalMedia CEO Jon Kamen and Netflix acquisition executive Funa Maduka will be among 150 film professional guests attending the Doha Film Institute’s talent incubator event Qumra, running March 9—14 this year.

The industry experts, from across the film production and distribution chain, will mentor 34 short and feature projects by mainly first and second-time directors. The full list of projects participating this year was announced during the Berlinale.

“In the fourth edition of Qumra, we continue to see remarkable participation from the world’s leading film industry professionals that generously contribute to the growth of the film industry in Qatar and the region,” said Dfi CEO Fatma Al Remaihi, in a release detailing Qumra’s industry programme this year.

“This is an incredible opportunity for emerging filmmakers to not only have the guidance of legendary names in cinema nurture their projects, but also to gain...

Mel Gibson to film special trailer for the festival; plans for Lebanese cinema focus and tributes to late Us actor John Cazale and Chris Penn.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has unveiled plans for its 50th ‘annivarysary’ edition, set to run July 3-11.

The jubilee edition will include a look at recent Lebanese cinema, a retrospective of late Soviet-Ukrainian director Larisa Shepitko’s work and tributes to Us actors John Cazale and Chris Penn.

Actor-director Mel Gibson will also film a special trailer for the festival, set to be shot in Los Angeles in early May. The Lethal Weapon star received the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at last year’s Kviff.

Gibson continues a tradition that sees the recipients of this award feature in a short trailer for the following festival. It will be written and directed by Martin Krejčí, who has collaborated with Ivan Zachariáš since the beginning of the...

Hot projects on Screenbase this week include German-Canadian co-production In The Lost Lands, twin brothers Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser’s Dégradé, spy-thriller Damascus Cover and documentary Tomorrow.

Fantasy adventure In The Lost Lands

Milla Jovovich will star alongside Justin Chatwin in this new feature based on short stories from the creator of Game Of Thrones. The German-Canadian co-production is directed by Constantin Werner.

The story revolves around a series of magical and fantastic tales centring on a sorceress in search of a spell, a warrior girl on a quest and a young barbarian who encounters a witch in a spacecraft.

Steve Hoban, Oliver Luer and Nico Bruinsma produce. Myriad Pictures chief Kirk D’Amico will serve as an executive producer.

Terrence Malick’s Voyage Of Time

Malick’s documentary features the voices of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Dede Gardner, Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad and [link...

Filmmakers from 24 countries, including the Us and Italy, to receive funding

The Doha Film Institute has announced recipients of the autumn 2014 session of its grants programme. The announcement has come just ahead of the Berlinale (Feb 5-15) where four of the Institute’s previous grantees will be presented, including three world premieres.

Some 21 projects from 24 countries – comprising nine narrative feature films, eight feature documentaries and four short films – will receive funding for development, production or post-production.

It marks the ninth session of the grants programme, which supports new cinematic talent, with a focus on first and second-time filmmakers.

A total of 11 of the projects are from the Middle East North Africa (Mena) region; eight are from the Oecd’s Development Assistance Committee list of countries (Dac); and two are from the rest of the world.

For the first time, filmmakers from Italy, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal, The Philippines and Us will receive grants.

Among the 21 projects...

Experimental strand to open with Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room

The Berlinale (Feb 5-15) has unveiled the line-up for its 45th Forum strand, comprising 43 films in its main programme, of which 31 are world premieres and 10 international premieres.

The programme includes avant garde, experimental works, essays, long-term observations and political reportage.

Canadian director Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room will open this year’s programme. The film’s numerous plotlines are inspired by real, imaginary and photographic memories of films from the silent era, using a half-damaged nitrate print aesthetic in homage.

Films of the 45th Forum

Abaabi ba boda boda (The Boda Boda Thieves) by Yes! That’s Us,

Uganda / South Africa / Kenya / Germany - Wp

Al-wadi (The Valley) by Ghassan Salhab, Lebanon / France / Germany

Balikbayan #1 (Memories of Overdevelopment Redux) by Kidlat Tahimik, The Philippines - Wp

Beira-Mar (Seashore) by Filipe Matzembacher, Marcio Reolon, Brazil - Wp

Ben Zaken by Efrat Corem, Israel - IP[p...

Maysoon Pachachi’s Nothing Doing In Baghdad is set to start shooting in February after securing three European co-producers and funding from Visions Sud Est and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (Afac).

Talal Al-Muhanna’s Linked Productions (Kuwait) and Pachachi’s Oxymoron Films (UK) will be joined by Patrice Nezan’s Les Contes Modernes (France), Alexander Ris’ Neue Mediopolis (Germany) and Juan Pablo Libossar’s Fasad (Sweden).

In addition to the Afac and Visions Sud Est funding, the project scooped the first $100,000 Iwc Filmmaker Award at Dubai International Film Festival in 2012 and also previously received support from Europe’s Media Mundus and Abu Dhabi’s Sanad. The three co-producers are also applying for funds.

Set in Baghdad in the last week of 2006 – when Saddam Hussein was executed – the film follows the intersecting lives of several characters of different religions living in the same neighbourhood, including a female novelist suffering from writer’s block.

“This was a time...

Other double winners include Theeb, Sivas and In Her Place.

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan followed up its recent victory at the London Film Festival by winning the Black Pearl Award at the 8th Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

As well as claiming the festival’s top prize, actor Alexey Serebryakov won the best actor prize in the narrative competition.

The Russian film, which explores one man’s fight against corruption, debuted at Cannes where it won Best Screenplay.

This year’s Narrative Features jury was led by Mumbai-based actor Irrfan Khan (The Lunchbox, Life of Pi)

The winner of the Black Pearl in the New Horizons category was Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders. The director had been due to attend Adff but had to cancel. Her sister, actress Alba Rohrwacher who plays the matriarch in The Wonders, was in attendance to accept the award.

The winner of the Black Pearl in the Documentary strand was Orlando Von Einsiedel’s [link...

Other double winners include Theeb and Sivas.

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan followed up its recent victory at the London Film Festival by winning the Black Pearl Award at the 8th Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

As well as claiming the festival’s top prize, actor Alexey Serebryakov won the best actor prize in the narrative competition.

The ceremony at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace, where the festival has been based for the past nine days, was followed by the 3D premiere of Disney animation Big Hero 6, which received its world premiere (in 2D) at the recent Tokyo International Film Festival.

Narrative Competition Winners 2014

Black Pearl Award

Leviathan

directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Special Jury Awards

Test

directed by Alexander Kott

Best Actor

Alexey Serebryakov

from the film Leviathan directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Best Actress

Maria Bonnevie

from the film A Second Chance directed by Susanne Bier

Best Film from the Arab World

Memories On Stone

directed by [link...

Irrfan Khan, Christina Voros and Catherine Dussart to preside over feature competition juries; seven world premieres of Arab films in feature competitions.

Abu Dhabi Film Festival (Oct 23-Nov 1) has released the names of its jury members, who will select the award winners of this year’s Adff competitions.

This year’s Narrative Features jury led by Mumbai-based actor Irrfan Khan (The Lunchbox, Life of Pi) will be rounded out by Algerian novelist and academic Waciny Laredj, award-winning English writer-director Steven Shainberg, Australian film director Cate Shortland and Palestinian actor Ali Suliman.

The panel evaluating the New Horizons section led by Paris-based film producer Catherine Dussart (The Missing Picture) includes Syrian actor Bassel Al Khayat, Moroccan filmmaker Leila Kilani, Geneva-based Indian filmmaker Anup Singh and film critic Charles Tesson, artistic director of Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival.

Heading the Documentary Features jury is Brooklyn-based director and cinematographer Christina Voros. The other jury...

Adff to present 197 films from 61 countries.

The 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival (Adff), backed by twofour54, will present nine feature world premieres, eight of them from the Arab world. The short film sections will host 48 world premieres.

The festival will open with Ali Mostafa’s From A to B [pictured], and festival director Ali Al-Jabri said: “It is the first time in the festival’s history that we opening with an Emirati film and we ares very proud about this landmark event.”

The festival runs October 23 to November 1 and presents 197 films from 61 countries.

For the second year, the festival host the Child Protection Award organised with the Child Protection Centre of the Ministry of Interior, to spotlight films that raise awareness about abused or neglected children. Films competing for that prize include Zerensenay Mehari’s Difret, Albert Shin’s In Her Place, and Cyprien Vial’s Young Tiger.

The Showcase section includes films such as ‘71, A Pigeon Sat on...

Exclusive: Melody [pictured] piques buyer interest after Montreal wins.

Doc & Film has scored sales on Belgian director Bernard Bellefroid’s surrogate mother drama Melody following an award-winning premiere at the Montreal Film Festival earlier this month.

The tale of a mother-daughter relationship that blooms between an older woman and the younger surrogate mother of her unborn child has sold to Canada (Axia Films), Taiwan (Cineplex) and Benelux (Cineart).

Co-stars Rachel Blake and Lucie Debay shared the best actress prize at Montreal where the film played in competition and also picked up a special mention from the ecumenical jury.

Paris-based Doc & Film have also sealed new deals on Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery which screened in the Tiff Docs section.

In Toronto, it has sold to Switzerland (Xenix), Spain (Surtsey) and Benelux (Cineart).

The film is due to be released in the Us by Zipporah Films on Nov 5 after a premiere at New York’s Film Forum theatre.

Cannes...

If you wanted a snapshot of worldly issues then Tiff’s Contemporary World Cinema programme would certainly serve as a whirlwind passport. Loaded in Cannes Film Festival preemed items receiving their North American Premiere debuts (Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou, Mélanie Laurent’s Breathe , Bruno Dumont’s P’tit Quinquin and Pascale Ferran’s Bird People are are just the tip of the iceberg) Tiff programmers have landed world premiere items from the likes of Cristián Jiménez, Ole Christian Madsen, Alex Holdridge & Linnea Saasen (we pic above) and Baran bo Odar. Along with the Canadian items mentioned last week, Here is the largest section’s offerings for 2014.

“Aire Libre,” Anahí Berneri, Argentina / International Premiere

“Amour Fou,” Jessica Hausner, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany / North American Premiere

“Behavior” (“Conducta”), Ernesto Daranas, Cuba / Canadian Premiere

“Bird People,” Pascale Ferran, France / North American Premiere

“Black Souls” (“Anime Nere”), Francesco Munzi, Italy / International Premiere

“Breathe” (“Respire”), Mélanie Laurent,...

This morning the Toronto Film Festival added several more films to their lineup including the world premiere of Thomas McCarthy's The Cobbler which stars Adam Sandler as a New York City cobbler who, disenchanted with the grind of daily life, stumbles upon a magical heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers and see the world in a new way. The film co-stars Method Man, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Dan Stevens, Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman. Additionally, Sundance standouts Infinity Polar Bear and Laggies starring Keira Knightley and Chloe Grace Moretz were added to the Gala selection. Joining The Cobbler as new additions to the Special Presentations field include Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria starring Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche and Two Days, One Night from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne and starring Marion Cotillard. Both films made a splash at Cannes earlier this year,...

Toronto film festival organisers have programmed features from 42 countries in the Contemporary World Cinema (Cwc) programme and unveiled eight South Korean selections in the City To City.

Cwc features latest work by Jessica Hausner, Rolf de Heer, Christian Zübert and Ryuichi Hiroki, among others.

For the third year, Tiff (Sept 4-14) has partnered with the University of Toronto’s Munk School Of Global Affairs on the Contemporary World Speakers series, pairing five films in selection with expert scholars.

The Contemporary World Speakers series is programmed in conjunction with the Tiff Adult Learning department.

Contemporary World Cinema

Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.

Aire Libre (Argentina), Anahí Berneri IP

Amour Fou (Austria-Luxembourg-Germany), Jessica Hausner Nap

Behavior (Conducta) (Cuba), Ernesto Daranas Cp

Bird People (France), Pascale Ferran Nap

Black Souls (Anime Nere) (Italy), Francesco Munzi IP

Breathe (Respire) (France), Mélanie Laurent Nap

Charlie’s Country (Australia), Rolf de Heer Nap

*John Stackhouse...