News

Palestinian drama ‘All That’s Left of You’ was named best film at the 8th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), while Tunisia’s Lotfi Achour picked up the best director prize for Red Path.

Cherien Dabis, the Palestine-us director, writer and star of All That’s Left Of You, was on hand to receive the top prize as well as the best screenplay award. The film, which premiered at Sundance, follows a Palestinian couple who must face a life-altering decision amid the chaos of displacement and uncertainty.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Achour’s Red Path won both the best director and New Hope award.

Sony horror 28 Years Later and Disney animation Elio will hope to lure audiences into UK and Irish cinemas over what is expected to be a heatwave weekend.

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Laterleads the charge in 707 sites for Sony.

The third film in the post-apocalyptic horror franchise comes 23 years after Boyle’s 28 Days Later,which opened on £1.5m and grossed £6.4m at the box office in 2002 as well as being a surprise hit internationally, taking $83m worldwide. In 2007, the Juan Carlos Fresnadillo-directed sequel 28 Weeks Later debuted in the UK with £1.6m from 401 screens for a cume of £5.4m.

Up on the mountain, in a beautiful rocky area where they weren’t supposed to go, Nizar (Yassine Samouni) introduces his younger cousin Achraf (Ali Helali) to a tiny grey baby goat which has been rejected by its mother. He says that his older brother, Mounir, told him to let it die, but a succession of children choose to care for it. The tension between the ways in which adults and children view the world is one of the driving forces in Lotfi Achour’s heartbreaking interpretation of a real life tragedy.

Nizar believes that the mountain is the best place for goats, as well as a place where they might find water to go swimming in, but their parents don’t want them up there at all. Towards the end of the film, we see lightning strike it during a ferocious thunderstorm. There are dangerous forces in such places.

The Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) proudly announces the official programme lineup for its highly anticipated 8th edition, set to take place from 19 to 27 July 2025. Staying true to its mission as a cultural bridge between Malaysian and global cinema, this year’s MIFFest places a spotlight on bold, diverse, and impactful storytelling from around the world. In its ongoing celebration of cinematic legends, the 8 th MIFFest is proud to pay tribute to the iconic Ti Lung with the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Extended Special Programme under the Master At Work series.

This year’s Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) sets the stage for an electrifying competition, with several standout titles leading the nominations. These critically acclaimed films reflect the depth and diversity of global storytelling celebrated at MIFFest. The Malaysia Golden Global Awards (Mgga) takes place on 26 July 2025 at Zepp Kuala Lumpur. The event will be streamed...

Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon” dominated the U.K. and Ireland box office over the weekend, opening with £8.1 million ($11 million), according to Comscore.

Walt Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” moved to second place in its fourth week, generating $1.9 million for a strong running total of $45.1 million. Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” followed in third with $1.6 million.

“The Salt Path” from Black Bear remained in fourth, collecting $804,146 and bringing its cumulative earnings to $8.1 million. In fifth, Lionsgate U.K.’s “From The World of John Wick: Ballerina” added £$788,495, reaching $3.5 million after two weeks.

Sony’s “Karate Kid: Legends” took sixth with $640,665 for a total of $6.6 million. Warner Bros.’ “Final Destination: Bloodlines” landed in seventh, earning $413,677 to bring its five-week tally to $15 million.

Universal’s “The Ballad Of Wallis Island” placed eighth, pulling in $325,998 for a cumulative $1.2 million. Trafalgar Releasing’s “Peppa Meets The Baby Cinema Experience” remained in the top 10 at ninth,...

Based on the true story of the brutal murder of a teenage shepherd, Lotfi Achour’s sombre film honestly attempts to encompass the unbearable grief suffered by the family

A low cloud of misery and horror settles on this sombre movie from Tunisian writer-director Lotfi Achour, inspired by a brutal event in his country from 2015. A teenage shepherd called Mabrouk Soltani was murdered and beheaded on Mount Mghila in central Tunisia by members of Jund al-Khilafah (“soldiers of the caliphate”), the Tunisian branch of Islamic State, which habitually hides out in that remote, rugged region. They videoed their grotesque homicide, claiming the boy was an army spy and ordered his terrified 14-year-old cousin, who was with him, to carry the severed head back to his village as a brutal “message” – and this boy obeyed, in a stricken state of trauma that can only be guessed at. This horrifying event was...

Malaysian director Bebbra Mailin’s local drama Ninavau is set to open the 8th Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest), which will be closed by Pia Marais’s Transamazonia.

The festival will take place in Kuala Lumpur from July 19-27 and has programmed 62 films from 48 countries, up from the 50 titles selected last year.

Opening film Ninavau marks Mailin’s feature directorial debut and is based on a short she directed in 2019. It tells the story of a Kadazan woman who returns from the peninsula to her devout Catholic family with a change of heart in a film that explores cultural identity.

Exclusive: This year’s Manchester Film Festival is set to run from March 14 – 23 and will open with a screening of The Penguin Lessons, directed by British filmmaker Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan.

Based on the best-selling memoir, the film tells the story of an Englishman’s personal and political awakening during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history, brought about by his unlikely adoption of a penguin.

Manchester will screen 37 features, including 15 UK premieres and 4 world premieres. All films will be screening in Manchester for the first time. This includes the Manchester premiere of the UK’s Oscar selection Santosh from Sandhya Suri, Sundance, and Cannes hit Good One directed by India Donaldson, and South by Southwest Audience Award Winner My Dead Friend Zoe from Kyle Hausmann-Stokes.

Other highlights include the UK premieres of Y2K, A24’s latest horror comedy starring Fred Durst and directed by Kyle Mooney, the...

French romantic comedy “This Charming Girl” and French comedy “Vanishing Goats” have joined the slate of Paris-based sales company MPM Premium, which will introduce the films to buyers at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.

“This Charming Girl,” directed by Jean-Luc Gaget and co-written with Raphaële Moussafir, will be released in France by Nour Films. The cast is led by Pauline Clément, Arthur Dupont, Emilie Caen (“Ducobu”) and Karin Viard.

The film centers on Clémence, a quiet yet amusing Parisian, who had a complicated childhood. At the age of 30, she struggles with low self-esteem. Fate intervenes when she meets Paul, a man with a domineering personality whom everyone calls “Paul Pot.” Clémence begins to ask herself: could he be the one?

The production companies are La Féline Films, Les Films du Capitaine and Karé Productions.

“This Charming Girl” will have a market screening at Rendez-Vous on Jan. 16.

Marie Rémond’s “Vanishing Goats,...

The Fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) came to a crescendo with the naming of the winners of this year’s prestigious Yusr Awards.

The features jury, Tûba Büyüküstün, Minnie Driver, Daniel Dae Kim, and Abu Bakr Shawky, led by Jury President Spike Lee deliberated to finally select winners across 16 feature films in competition, while the shorts jury Hamzah Jamjoom, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, and Ke-Xi Wu judged across the short film offering of Rsiff 2024.

Red Path (Tunisia) directed by Lotfi Achour was awarded the prestigious Golden Yusr for Best Feature Film. An extraordinary journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone, Red Path is the third feature film by director Lotfi Achour, and it had its world premiere at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland. With this film, we observe the development of Tunisian cinema, its craftsmanship, and its distinctive presence in this edition of the festival.

Welcome to your weekly Insider, friends. Jesse Whittock here, with news from the heart of Disney, the Golden Globes and the Red Sea. Off we go. Sign up here.

Disney Wished For Moore

Sliding doors moment: How’s this for an earth-shattering move… that ultimately didn’t happen? Yesterday, Max and Jake got the European TV community talking when they revealed that BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore had held talks with top brass at Disney over the vacant Emea originals role, but decided against the move. This has all the ingredients for an agenda setter: a story rooted firmly in the industry that will have execs and creatives from the UK to Turkey debating what happened behind closed doors. You’ll remember we broke news of Liam Keelan’s impending departure in early October and the role has been the talk of the industry since. Other names linked include...

Tunisia’s “Red Path,” directed by Lotfi Achour, was awarded the Golden Yusr for best feature film Thursday at the Red Sea Film Festival awards ceremony, where honorary awards were bestowed on Viola Davis and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Sarah Jessica Parker, Dev Patel, John Boyega and Nick Jonas were among the star guests.

Johnny Depp’s “Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness” screened as the festival’s final gala screening, with Depp attending with star Riccardo Scamarcio.

“Red Path,” described as “a journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone,” is the third feature film by Achour. It had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. The Golden Yusr comes with a $100,000 cash prize.

Achour also took home Red Sea’s Yusr prize for best director, which comes with a $10,000 prize.

The awards were bestowed by a features jury led by its president Spike Lee,...

Tunisian director Lotfi Achour’s Red Path won the Yusr Award for best competition film and the best director honor at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during its Thursday evening awards ceremony that also saw Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Viola Davis being honored.

The Silver Yusr Feature Film Award went to Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown, a drama about young Palestinians caught in an eternal state of exile. Little Jaffna, starring and directed by Lawrence Valin, was honored with the AlUla Audience Award International Film, with Hobal from director Abdulaziz Alshlahei getting the Saudi film audience award.

“Ashraf, a shepherd boy working with his teenage cousin in impoverished northern Tunisia faces the unimaginable when Islamic State terrorists set on them and behead his cousin Nizar in front of him,” says a synopsis for Red Path. “Ashraf has no...

Tunisian drama Red Path, directed by Lotfi Achour, scooped the Golden Yusr for best film and the prize for best director at the 4th Red Sea International Film Festival on Thursday (December 12).

The main award was presented by jury head and Oscar-winning US filmmaker Spike Lee at a ceremony in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Scroll down for full list of winners

On stage, Lee declared that it was also Achour’s birthday, meaning the best film and director awards are quite the present, coming with cash prizes of $100,000 and $30,000 respectively.

The film, which premiered at Locarno, is inspired by the true...

MPM Premium has inked deals on Mandoob, the Saudi thriller which broke box office records on its local release last year.

It has sold the film to India (Superfine), Latin America (Encripta), Australia (Sbs) and Indonesia (Falcon); while negotiations are underway for France, the US, and Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Mandoob – which also has the English title Night Courier in some territories – is the feature directorial debut of Ali Kalthami, co-founder of Saudi studio Telfaz11. Set in the Saudi capital Riyadh, it follows a mentally fragile man racing against time to save his ailing father.

It debuted at Toronto in...

The Red Sea International Film Festival is now a Spike Lee joint.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker will preside over the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia film festival’s features-competition jury this year, Red Sea announced on Thursday via Instagram. Lee’s impressive filmography includes “Do the Right Thing” (1989), “Malcolm X” (1992), and “BlacKkKlansman” (2019), for which he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. “BlacKkKlansman” was also nominated for Lee’s directing and for Best Picture.

The 2024 Red Sea Film Festival will take place in Jeddah’s Old Town of Al Balad from December 5-14.

Not in competition but newly announced to play at Red Sea 2024 is Thierry Frémaux’s “Lumière: Le Cinema,” the sequel to “Lumière: The Adventure Begins,” which debuted at the inaugural Red Sea festival. “Le Cinema” is a cinephile’s dream, described as “an unparalleled journey through the early days of celluloid,” it features 100 newly restored films. Frémaux is the director of...

The 55th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) has unveiled its main competition lineup, with 15 features vying for the Golden Peacock award carrying an INR4 million prize purse, notably featuring nine films directed by women.

Among the world premieres are Manijeh Hekmat and Faeze Azizkhani’s Iranian drama “Fear & Trembling,” exploring an older woman’s struggles with isolation, and Nikhil Mahajan’s “Raavsaheb,” an Indian crime thriller examining man-animal conflict in tribal lands.

The slate includes festival circuit standouts like Louise Courvoisier’s “Holy Cow” (France), which nabbed the Un Certain Regard Youth Prize at Cannes 2024, and Saulė Bliuvaitė’s “Toxic” (Lithuania), winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno 2024. Bogdan Mureșanu’s Romanian revolution drama “The New Year That Never Came” arrives fresh from winning Venice’s Horizons and Fipresci awards.

The lineup also includes Belkis Bayrak’s “Gulizar” (Turkey), which played at Toronto and San Sebastian, and George Sikharulidze’s “Panopticon” (Georgia-u.

In November 2015, a staggeringly violent crime took place in the impoverished area of Mghila Mountain in Tunisia. A jihadist group attacked two young shepherds, killing one and forcing the survivor to carry a bloody message back to his family. The real-life case inspired Lotfi Achour’s harrowing drama “Red Path,” which played as part of the Meet the Neighbors competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

“At first, I dismissed the idea of making a film based on this story, telling myself that I needed to let some time pass and my emotions calm down,” Achour told Variety. “When a year and a half later the second brother was murdered in similar circumstances, it brought back the need for me to talk about it because it was no longer an isolated crime but premeditated acts on the part of jihadists. From then on, I was obsessed with making this film.”

“Red Path...

Viola Davis will be honored by Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, where the Oscar winner and four-time nominee will also be holding a master class highlighting her career.

On Monday, the festival — which will run Dec. 6 to 14 in Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore — announced the main lineup of its fourth edition, which will open with the world premiere of Egyptian director Karim Shenawy’s musical drama “The Tale of Daye’s Family.” The film follows an 11-year-old Nubian albino with a beautiful voice “who faces adversity due to his unique appearance,” as the provided synopsis puts it.

“For us, this a perfect representation of where this region is headed and what’s happening here,” said the fest’s managing director Shivani Pandya Malhotra at a press conference, noting that the inspirational film is a co-production between Egypt and Saudi.

The Red Sea fest – which is...

The fourth editon of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (December 5-14) has unveiled the line-up for its Competition strand and has selected Egypt-Saudi co-productionThe Tale Of Daye’s Family as its opening film.

The Tale Of Daye’s Family by Egyptian filmmaker Karim Shenawi tells the story of an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy who faces adversity due to his unique appearance and who gets a chance to audition for an Egyptian version of talent show The Voice.

Scroll down for full Competition line-up

Speaking at a Red Sea press conference this morning, the festival’s managing director...

The Red Sea Film Festival has unveiled the bulk of the line-up for its fourth edition, which will showcase 120 films from 81 territories from December 5 to 14 in the port city of Jeddah.

The festival will open with Egyptian director Karim Shenawy’s The Tale Of Daye’s Family (aka Light) about an 11-year-old Nubian albino boy with a beautiful voice, who faces adversity due to his unique appearance.

Abandoned by his father and bullied by his peers, he dreams of following in the footsteps of his idol, singer and actor Mohamed Mounir. When he gets a chance to audition for The Voice, Daye and his family embark on a perilous 1,000-mile journey from Southern Egypt to Cairo.

Michael Gracey’s semi-biographical feature Better Man, inspired by Robbie Williams and portraying the pop icon as a chimpanzee, will close the festival.

Johnny Depp’s Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness...

Honors for and onstage appearances by Viola Davis and Egyptian star Mona Zaki (Perfect Strangers, Flight 404, Aserb: The Squadron, The Spider), Johnny Depp’s new movie as a director and a biopic about Robbie Williams will be part of this year’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, organizers said Monday.

They also unveiled the competition lineup for the fest’s fourth edition. Organizers said that the overall lineup features 49 world and international premieres, also highlighting that six female filmmakers will be featured in the competition program.

Among the 15 competition titles announced are Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon, which bowed at the Toronto Film Festival, and Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon, which had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival where it won the special jury prize.

The Rsiff on Monday also added several galas to its lineup, plus unveiled its International Spectacular and its Families & Children programs.

U.K.-based distribution company Sovereign Films has secured the rights to distribute the drama film “Red Path” in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The movie tells the emotionally-charged true story that inspired the film. Director Lotfi Achour focuses on exploring themes of childhood resilience in the face of trauma and violence.

“Red Path” depicts the experience of 13-year-old Achraf after the murder of his cousin Nizar. He is tasked with carrying Nizar’s severed head as a message to his family. Throughout his journey, Achraf struggles with staying connected to his cousin’s spirit while recovering the body. The film was inspired by events in Tunisia in 2015 where teenagers were involved in a disturbingly violent crime.

Achour wanted to create a story that shows the capacity of children to withstand violence and trauma. His film depicts how Achraf uses both real and imaginary means to face what happened and continue living despite challenges.

Sovereign Films has acquired U.K. and Ireland distribution rights to “Red Path,” the latest feature from Tunisian director Lotfi Achour, which competed for the Golden Leopard at this year’s Locarno Film Festival.

The film, set for theatrical release in the second or third quarter of 2025, centers on 13-year-old Achraf, who is forced into a gruesome and unimaginable act after his cousin Nizar is murdered by a group of men. Carrying the severed head of his cousin as a brutal message to his family, Achraf finds himself haunted by Nizar’s ghost. As his elders fail him, Achraf is torn between holding on to Nizar’s spirit and fulfilling his duty to recover his cousin’s body, while grappling with the overwhelming burden of grief and survival.

Achour, whose 2016 short “Law of Lamb” vied for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, drew inspiration from actual events. “This film is...

Teodora Ana Mihai’s “Traffic” was named the winner of the 40th Warsaw Film Festival on Saturday. The film was written by Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes with “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” and stars “Happening” lead actor Anamaria Vartolomei.

“Traffic” focuses on Romanian immigrants in Belgium, who go from unwanted second-class citizens to very much wanted criminals, as they decide to stage a heist that will change their lives forever.

You can watch the trailer here:

“I was excited about the opportunity to work closely with Cristian Mungiu, as he was also co-producing the project. I anticipated it would be an intense and challenging experience, but I don’t shy away from challenges, as I demonstrated with [previous film] ‘La Civil,’” Mihai told Variety.

“I believe Cristian and I have always shared a similar understanding of the themes explored in this film, which camouflages...

MPM Premium has closed sales in France, Belgium and the Middle East and North Africa for Lotfi Achour’s “Red Path,” screening in the Filmmakers of the Present competition at Locarno this August.

Nour Films will release “Red Path” in France, O’Brother in Belgium and Art in the Mena regions.

Founded in 2008 by Patrick Sibourd, Nour Films distributes independent films with a singular and engaged film vision, it says. Recent Nour distribution slate titles take in 2024 Sundance audience award winner “Girls Will Be Girls” and Berlin competition player “Gloria!”

Upcoming releases from O’Brother take in Michel Hazanavicius’ Cannes competition hit “The Most Precious of Treasures.”

“Red Path” is inspired by real events that unfolded in the Mghila Mountain in Tunisia in November 2015. There, a jihadist group attacked two young shepherds, forcing the one survivor to bring a morbid message back to his family. Struggling to cope with the traumatic situation,...

Taking place August 7-17, the official selection for the 77th Locarno Film Festival has been unveiled, featuring a stellar-looking slate of highly anticipated films. Highlights include Hong Sangsoo’s second feature of the year, By the Stream, starring Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee; Ramon Zürcher’s The Sparrow in the Chimney, Wang Bing’s second part of his Youth trilogy, Youth (Hard Times), as well as new films by Radu Jude, Bertrand Mandico, Courtney Stephens, Ben Rivers, Gürcan Keltek, Denis Côté, Kevin Jerome Everson, Fabrice Du Welz (featuring Abel Ferrara!), and many more. Also of particular note is the world premiere of Tarsem Singh’s restored cut of The Fall, which features a slightly different edit as he recently noted.

Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival said, “We are very excited and happy with our selection for Locarno’s 77th edition, which we believe...

Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s drama The Antique has joined MPM Premium’s 2024 line-up.

The Antique is set in 2006 amidst the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia. It stars Salome Demuria alongside Sergey Dreyden and Vladimir Vlovichenkov and is produced by Georgia’s Cinetech.

The Paris-based seller has also unveiled more sales for Caye Casas’ Spanish-language black comedy horror The Coffee Table, selling it to Second Sight Films for the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Exit Media in Italy and HBO for Eastern and Central Europe. The film comes off a festival run at Tallinn Black Nights, the...

Deportation drama The Antique is the newest addition to MPM Premium’s 2024 line-up that also includes Brazilian environmental drama Betania, Saudi Arabian thriller Mandoob, Spanish LGBTQ+ comedy On The Go, horror The Coffee Table, plus Tunisian trauma-centred story Red Path.

Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s The Antique is set in 2006 amidst the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia. It stars 2024 European Shooting Star actress Salome Demuria alongside Sergey Dreyden and Vladimir Vlovichenkov and is produced by Georgia’s Cinetech. The film is currently in post and expected to premiere later in the year.

The Paris-based seller has also...

Film was showcased as a work-in-progress at Red Sea Film Festival.

Paris-based sales house MPM Premium has taken on worldwide sales for Tunisian filmmaker Lotfi Achour’s second feature Red Path (Les Enfants Rouges) after it was showcased in the Red Sea Film Festival’s Red Sea Souk work-in-progress section in December.

The film, currently in post-production, is described as a dreamlike journey into the wounded psyche of a young shepherd and his ability to overcome the traumatic death of his cousin.

Shot in the summer of 2022 in Tunisia’s Kef region, it is based on a true story that...

Industry speakers at festival include ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ director Jasmila Zbanic, former Marvel exec Karim Zreik.

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) has selected 26 feature film projects for its Red Sea Souk Project Market; plus a Work-in-Progress showcase, and speakers for its 360° industry events programme.

The 26 Souk projects hail from Africa and the Arab region. Titles include Djeliya, Memory Of Manding, a documentary from Burkinabe filmmaker Boubacar Sangare, whose third film A Golden Life played at the Berlinale earlier this year.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

Also included is Scandar Copti’s animated documentary A Childhood,...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has revealed details of the Red Sea Souk, the fest’s industry market that will offer meeting and networking opportunities revolving around new Arab and African product.

The Souk will take place Dec. 2-5 alongside the Nov. 30-Dec. 9 fest in Jeddah, on the Red Sea’s eastern shore. The fest’s industry side will also comprise the Red Sea Talent Days on Dec. 6-7, which will give regional talents and young filmmakers a chance to connect with industry experts.

The Red Sea Souk Project Market will showcase 26 feature-length projects from across the Arab and African region. Of these, 12 are Red Sea Lodge projects that were developed in-house during the year through workshops and labs in partnership with Italy’s Torino Film Lab.

Four of these projects will be awarded the annual Red Sea Lodge production prizes of $50,000 each.

All 26 selected projects in the...

The Red Sea Film Festival Foundation today announced the recipients of the Red Sea Fund's 2023 post-production funding cycle 1. Eight films by Saudi, Arab and African filmmakers will receive grants to help complete films that shine a light on important narratives and new talents emerging from the region.

The Red Sea Fund's 2023 post-production cycle received 59 applications, which were reviewed and filtered down to a shortlist of 18 films. Of these 18 films, eight were selected: five scripted features and three documentaries.

“The Omen” directed by Baloji, is set to premiere at Cannes Film Festival 2023. This underpins the Red Sea Film Festival's mission to advocate for filmmakers who are leading the way and inspiring a new generation of creatives.

Mohammed Al Turki, CEO of the Red Sea Film Foundation, said: “We are excited to be unveiling eight projects which will be bolstered by the Red Sea Fund's post-production grant – which can be a vital...

Saudi, Arab and African talent supported in 2023’s first cycle of funding.

The Red Sea Film Festival Foundation has unveiled the recipients of its first post-production grants of 2023.

Eight films by Saudi, Arab and African filmmakers will receive grants to help complete films that spotlight narratives and new talents emerging from the region.

They include Omen, the feature debut of Belgian-Congolese artist-turned filmmaker Baloji, which is set to premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes on Monday (May 22). Memento International handles sales on the film, in which a young Congolese man travels from Belgium to his birthplace of Kinshasa to...

The Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production market spread the love at an award ceremony Sunday night, with 15 projects claiming 20 prizes in the Egyptian capital valued at some 225,000.

Among the standouts were Suzannah Mirghani’s “Cotton Queen” and “Lamp in the Dark,” from Sudanese filmmaker Mahdi El-Tayeb, which both took home awards from marketing and distribution outfit Mad Solutions for distribution in the Arab world with a 50,000 minimum guarantee.

Set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, “Cotton Queen” — which won the ArteKino Award at the Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier this year — follows a teenage girl as she begins to question cultural expectations and the collapsing cotton industry, under threat from both insect and human pests. “Lamp in the Dark” turns on a generational clash in a Sudanese village after the arrival of a mobile cinema.

No film won more than two prizes, with Amjad Al Rasheed...

New works by Palestinian docmaker Amer Shomali (“The Wanted 18”), emerging Egyptian filmmaker Sara Shazli (“Back Home”) and first-time Jordanian director Amjad Al Rasheed are among the 16 projects selected for the 9th Cairo Film Connection, the Cairo Film Festival’s co-production platform.

The event features films from 10 countries, including five from the host nation, with 11 fiction and documentary features in development and five currently in post-production being presented to producers, distributors, sales agents and festival programmers.

This year’s edition received a record 135 submissions, according to incoming Cairo Film Connection manager Lynda Belkhiria, pointing toward a broader surge in production across North Africa and the Middle East. “There is a need, there is a demand,” she said. “There is something going on across the region.”

Many of the projects are female-led and examine the ongoing struggle of women to define themselves against the expectations of their families and societies. Still others...

The recent success of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight urban noir “Ashkal” from helmer Youssef Chebbi, and the 2021 international feature Oscar nomination for the provocative art world drama “The Man Who Sold His Skin” from director Kaouther Ben Hania reignited industry interest in projects from Tunisian directors. The Cairo Film Connection’s work-in-progress section supports this interest by offering the first Arab world look at “Red Path,” the second feature from Tunisian theater and cinema helmer Lotfi Achour (“Burning Hope”). The production is very different in style and genre from those of his aforementioned compatriots.

Inspired by real events and deeply rooted in a particular social context, “Red Path” is set in an extremely poor and isolated region of Tunisia’s northwest where, in 2015, terrorists attacked two young shepherds. They decapitated the older boy and commanded his younger cousin to bring the severed head back to the family as a gruesome message.

Film Independent today announced the names of the 30 filmmakers, from 11 nations, selected to participate in its 2022 Global Media Makers LA Residency, taking place in person this month.

The filmmakers and projects chosen are Sumon Delwar (My Cousin), Ali El Arabi and Ahmed El Zoghby (The Legend of Zeinab and Noah), Prantik Basu (Dengue), Archana Borhade and Mangesh Joshi (Purjey (Parts)), Sriram Raja and Deyali Mukherjee (New Sweetness), Kushal Batunge (They Call Her Mafia), Gaby Zarazir and Michael Zarazir, Lamia Chraibi and Hicham Lasri (Meskoun), Anup Poudel and Abinash Bikram Shah (Elephants in the Fog), Rajan Kathet and Sunir Pandey (No Winter Holidays), Fizza Ali Meerza and Nabeel Qureshi (There Was a Boy), Suzannah Mirghani (Cotton Queen), Amjad Abu Alala and Mohamed Kordofani (Goodbye Julia), Lotfi Achour and Anissa Daoud (Red Path), Rashid Abdelhamid and Ismahane Lahmar (A Respectable Family), Sezen Kayhan and Beste Yamalıoğlu (Women with...

A record 5,100 short films were submitted to the Cairo Film Festival’s short film competition this year, thanks to a new collaboration with FilmFreeWay. Around 1,200 shorts are sent in more usually for the region’s only A-list festival. The section comes with the added bonus of the winning film being submitted to the Oscars’ long list.

“We expanded the team to nine people, including volunteers, so we could properly assess each one,” Marouan Omara, the director of the Short Film Competition, tells Variety.

More than 3,800 shorts were submitted via the FilmFreeWay platform alone.

This year, 22 films are vying for the Youssef Chahine Award for Best Short Film, which comes with a $5,000 prize, sponsored by Clacket Media.

Ten of the films are by women directors. Five come from Egypt. Five from the Arab/Africa region. There are 12 international films.

“The selected films are diverse and show underrepresented communities and countries,” says Omara.

‘Aladdin’ star Mena Massoud confirmed to attend.

The El Gouna Film Festival, taking place on the Egyptian Red Sea coast Sept 19-27, has unveiled the line-up for its third edition.

A dozen international features, mainly selected from recent A-list festivals, will compete for the El Gouna Golden Star, worth $50,000, as well as other prizes.

Nearly half the competition titles hail from the Arab world including Lebanese filmmaker Oualid Mouaness’s 1982, about a school boy determined to declare his love to a classmate as war breaks out changing both their lives forever.

Nadine Labaki has a supporting role in the film,...

They join the previously announced Agnès Varda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Pawel Pawlikowski.

Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher and Mexican Academy Award-winning production designer Eugenio Caballero have been confirmed as the final two masters at the fifth edition of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event, which runs March 15-20 this year.

The pair join three previously announced masters: iconic French director Agnès Varda, Japanese filmmaker and writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, who is Oscar nominated this year for Cold War.

Caballero’s 30-plus film credits include Jim Jarmusch’s The Limit Of Control, Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma.

Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff) co-production platform event meted out $100,000 worth of prizes.

Egyptian director Sherif El Bendary’s female suppression drama Spray and Iraqi director Koutaiba Al-Janabi’s experimental thriller The Woodman shared the top $20,000 Badya prize at the fifth edition of the Cairo Film Connection, running Nov 26-28.

The co-production platform, at the heart of the Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff) industry programme (Nov 20-29), showcased 16 projects from across the Arab world, 10 in development and six in post-production.

The winners were representative of the increasingly adventurous and diverse stories and styles emerging out of the Arab world’s burgeoning indie film scene.

An ample assortment of new Arab cinema will be on display at the revived Cairo Film Connection, where new projects by established helmers, including Egypt’s Osama Fawzy (“I Love Cinema”), Iraq’s Koutaiba Al-Janabi (“Leaving Baghdad”), and Syria’s Soudade Kaadan (“The Day I Lost My Shadow”), will be vying for more than $100,000 in prizes with works from promising up and comers.

The 17 Cfc projects in various stages from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine Algeria, Syria, and Morocco were selected out of 107 submissions. They comprise dramas, docs, and potentially groundbreaking genre films with gravitas such as black comedy “Inshallah a Boy,” by Jordanian first-timer Amjad Al Rasheed, about a widow who due to Islamic Sharia law finds herself in dire need of a male child to stop her in-laws from taking possession of her home.

Al Rasheed, who is a Berlinale Talents alumni, said in press notes that...

Colcoa is keeping up with the times. Now in its twenty-first year, the lauded French film festival, sponsored by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, has added a pair of forward-thinking new categories for its newest edition. This year will include a virtual reality program and a web series competition, in addition to its Cinema, Television and Shorts competitions.

“These two new popular formats offer more opportunities to showcase the creativity of French producers and filmmakers as well as the diversity of French production,” said François Truffart, Colcoa Executive Producer and Artistic Director. “While entertainment is still the key word for the program, with a balanced mix of comedies and dramas, several topical issues will cover the program this year, including the environment, discrimination, racism, terrorism, and the role of the artist in society. More than ever, Colcoa will offer a unique opportunity to see these universal topics from different angles.”

Read...