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Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche opens The Temple Woods Gang with a quiet urgency, placing us atop a concrete rooftop overlooking the Bois du Temple housing project. The film immediately feels lived-in: sun-bleached façades, pigeon-scattered courtyards and the muted hum of distant traffic. Through a subtle camera move we meet Monsieur Pons, a grieving ex-sniper whose personal loss casts a silent shadow over the story ahead.

From there, the narrative shifts gears into a true-life 2014 heist: a small crew of neighborhood friends—led by the eager Bébé—targets the luggage van of a wealthy Middle Eastern prince. Ameur-Zaïmeche balances vérité-style spontaneity with carefully framed set pieces, making the robbery pulse with authenticity. You sense the director’s art-house roots in every long take and off-beat reaction shot, yet the plot’s kinetic momentum never stalls.

This is no routine thriller. The contrast between adrenaline-fueled action—captured in tense over-the-shoulder shots on the highway—and hushed,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research

My screening series Amnesiascope hosts the La Clef Revival Collective for a screening of Bye Bye Tiberias this Sunday.

Spectacle

Meanwhile, La Clef presents Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Dernier Maquis on Saturday.

Anthology Film Archives

A Volker Spengler retrospective brings three films by Fassbinder while a Matías Piñeiro-curated series offers Antonioni and Straub-Huillet.

Nitehawk Cinema

A secret Hong Kong film plays on 35mm Sunday afternoon.

Museum of the Moving Image

Snubbed Forever concludes with The Lady from Shanghai and Vertigo.

IFC Center

Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop plays in a new restoration; eXistenZ, Mulholland Dr., Paprika, Dogra Magra, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas show late.

Roxy Cinema

Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart screen.

Film Forum

Play It As It Lays begins a week-long run; Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman continues...

Named one of the 10 best films of Cahiers du Cinéma back in 2023, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s crime thriller The Temple Woods Gang is finally getting a proper U.S. release later this year from Several Futures. However, New York City audiences will have a chance to see it next week as part of a special screening at L’Alliance New York. The March 12 screening will be followed by a conversation with Paola Raiman, Chloé Folens, and Taddeo Reihnardt, film programmers from Le Clef Revival in Paris as part of their NYC tour, and critic/translator Nicholas Elliott. Ahead of the special event, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the U.S. trailer and poster.

Here’s the synopsis: “A gang of small-time criminals in a working-class French suburb stage a daring heist against a mysterious foreign tycoon and pay the consequences in the latest and possibly greatest feature from under-sung French-Algerian master Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche.

Wherever you call home, it’s hard to be invested in cinephile culture without a mind towards its health. It was hardly some casual choice when Sean Baker took time during an Oscar-acceptance speech to plea for greater attendance––with each year every purchase at an Anthology, Spectacle, or Maysles feels more and more like an investment in the future, or perhaps a protest vote against our present. And few fight so valiantly as La Clef Revival Collective, a Parisian group who’ve earned praise from Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Justine Triet, Leos Carax, Adèle Haenel, and Céline Sciamma (the latter of whom sits on their board).

When La Clef, a Parisian theater initially open since 1973, faced severe risk of closure in 2019, the Revival Collective and aforementioned filmmakers joined forces to save the space. They are seeking $400,000 between now and April to fund renovations,...

Paris’ La Clef cinema is heading to New York.

Organizers behind the popular venue, one of Paris’ most enduring rep houses, are heading to New York this week to host a series of film screenings at cinemas across the city to connect with fellow cinephiles and raise funds for their ongoing redevelopment project back in Paris.

La Clef has been officially shut since 2019. The cinema was saved from permanent closure last year after Cinéma Revival, a group of local volunteers and longtime patrons of the cinema, purchased the building, which had been put on the market by its previous owner. The campaign to save La Clef was an almost five-year battle and began with a bold community occupation of the building, which grew into an international movement involving film industry figures, lawyers, activists, and government officials.

The group bought the building with €2 million raised through an online fundraising campaign. €400.000 was...

As 2023 draws to a close and the Oscar race begins to heat up, film publications around the world continue to roll out their lists of the year’s top films. IndieWire recently named Celine Song’s “Past Lives” the best film of the year, topping a list that also included “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Asteroid City,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Now Cahiers du Cinema has gotten in on the action, selecting Laura Citarella’s “Trenque Lauquen” as its top pick.

The legendary French film publication, which served as an intellectual hub for the French New Wave after launching the careers of Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, and famously named “Twin Peaks: The Return” the best film of the 2010s, revealed its top 10 films of 2023 on Friday, December 1. The list only includes movies that opened theatrically in France in 2023, so many films that had American theatrical runs or festival premieres in past years made the cut.

Established in the 1950s by André Bazin, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca, and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, France’s Cahiers du cinéma has been a bastion for international film criticism for decades, even amidst recent changes. They’ve now unveiled their predictably stellar top 10 films of 2023 list.

Topping the list is Laura Citeralla’s four-hour epic Trenque Lauquen, while Víctor Erice’s long-awaited return Close Your Eyes and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall round out the top three. The list also features Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer, and Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World.

Cyril Schäublin’s overlooked drama Unrest also got a mention while Pierre Creton’s Un prince and Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up tied for tenth place. They also have room for one major surprise, this year being Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Berlinale...

With seven features to his name, Franco-Algerian director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche still remains relatively unknown to art-house moviegoers both at home and abroad.

And yet, ever since his 2001 debut, Wesh, Wesh, What’s Happening?, he’s been one of the most fascinating and consistently surprising auteurs to emerge from France these past two decades. Each new film, whether set in the present (Adhen) or past (The Smugglers’ Songs), the Paris banlieue (Wesh, Wesh) or an Algerian village (Bled Number One), adds something original to a body of work that is a perpetual experiment in narrative cinema, blurring the lines between fiction, documentary, reality, fantasy and history in ways few directors currently do.

His latest, The Temple Woods Gang (Le Gang des Bois du Temple), is ostensibly a crime thriller, with an English title that sounds like an old Western and a French title like that of an unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album.

The Berlin Film Festival has revealed the 28 titles selected for its Forum strand and the 26 projects at the Forum Expanded platform.

In the Forum strand, documentaries stand alongside personal essay films, while the films and installations that make up the Forum Expanded program revolve around political and personal legacies.

The festival takes place Feb. 16-26.

Forum Titles

“Allensworth”

by James Benning

U.S.

“Anqa”

by Helin Çelik

Austria/Spain

“About Thirty”

by Martin Shanly | with Martin Shanly, Camila Dougall, Paul Dougall, Esmeralds Escalante, Maria Soldi

Argentina

“Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait”

by Luke Fowler | with Margaret Tait

U.K.

“The Bride”

by Myriam U. Birara | with Sandra Umulisa, Aline Amike, Daniel Gaga, Fabiola Mukasekuru, Beatrice Mukandayishimiye

Rwanda

“Cidade Rabat”

by Susana Nobre | with Raquel Castro, Paula Bárcia, Paula Só, Sara de Castro, Laura Afonso

Portugal/France

“De Facto”

by Selma Doborac | with Christoph Bach, Cornelius Obonya...

The Berlin Film Festival on Monday unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 Forum section, its sidebar for independent and avant-garde cinema.

Highlights include Allensworth, a new documentary from acclaimed U.S. filmmaker James Benning (Rr, 13 Lakes), which looks at the first self-administered African-American municipality in California; the drama The Temple Woods Gang from director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (Story of Judas); and Being in a Place — A Portrait of Margaret Tait, a documentary by Luke Fowler on the Scottish poet and filmmaker.

Among the world premieres at the 53rd Berlinale Forum are In Ukraine, a non-fiction look at the ongoing Ukraine war from Polish directors Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski; the “coming-of-middle-age” tale Cidade Rabat from Portugese filmmaker Susana Nobre (Jack’s Ride); the Argentine comedy of errors About Thirty from director Martin Shanly (About 12); and The Bride, a debut feature from director Myriam U. Birara, which is set in Rwanda three years after the 1994 genocide.

Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski’s ‘In Ukraine’ and Vlad Petri’s ‘Between Revolutions’ both selected.

Documentaries about the Iranian and Romanian revolutions of the 1970s and 80s, and the ongoing war in Ukraine are among the final 20 titles selected for the Berlinale’s Forum strand.

Vlad Petri’s Between Revolutions shows a semi-fictional correspondence between two women: one going to Iran in 1979, the other experiencing the years of Ceausescu’s Romania.

Scroll down for the full list of Forum titles

The Romania-Croatia-Qatar-Iran co-production is produced by Monica Lazurean-Gorgan for Romania’s Activ Docs.

Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski’s In...

Jacques Nolot, Sara Forestier to star.

Algerian director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche is set to shoot crime thriller The Temple Woods Gang this autumn in France, with UK firm Reason8 Films handling worldwide rights.

The film will shoot on location in Paris and its suburbs, plus Bordeaux, Marseille and Nice.

It follows a US private investigator and a retired loner from the Temple Woods housing project who get caught in a conflict between a gang of robbers, and the henchmen of a wealthy prince the gang has attacked.

Jacques Nolot, Sara Forestier, Vincent Rottiers, Slimane Dazi, Olivier Gourmet and Nabil Djedouani lead the cast.

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche's South Terminal (2019) is exclusively showing on Mubi in the Viewfinder series.My name is Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, and South Terminal is my sixth film. A film which blurs the tracks, which has no borders. Neither place nor time are clearly defined. Is it the Algeria of yesterday? The France of today, the Europe or even the world of tomorrow? The chaos generated by the contemporary economic order is accompanied by authoritarian drifts which do not concern only Algeria or France. The return of reactionary mechanisms all over the world proves this. South Terminal was filmed in the south of France exclusively, in Nîmes, Istres, Miramas and Grasse, however it carries ramifications from the colonial campaigns, through the war of independence up to the dark years that Algeria experienced in the 90s. This allowed us to transpose Algerian history elsewhere, to explode the frameworks and thus to reveal the violent,...

Ramzy Bedia is captivating as a charismatic doctor in this French-Algerian drama about a country descending into chaos

French-Algerian film-maker Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche sends us a dispatch from a civil war with Terminal Sud, an intriguing, somewhat abstract drama about a country descending into chaos. The facts on the ground here seem to tally with the Algerian civil war of the 90s, the so called “black decade” that claimed more than 100,000 lives. But the film was mostly shot in southern France, and Ameur-Zaïmeche doesn’t hide contemporary details such as mobiles and new-model SUVs. He has said in interviews that the point is to make it universal: this could happen any time, anywhere. The approach isn’t entirely convincing, and the unfocused sense of time and place is a bit distracting and frustrating at times. But there is real power to many of the scenes.

Nicolas Vanier’s Spread Your Wings (Donne-Moi Des Ailes) and Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s South Terminal (Terminal Sud) screenings cancelled

UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s 25th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, which was to run through March 15 at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, was aborted yesterday due to the announcement by Governor Cuomo on the coronavirus pandemic limiting gathering in public spaces. Rebecca Zlotowski’s An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile) which started at 4:00pm on Thursday was the last screening of the festival.

Burning Ghost director Stéphane Batut, who was in town and expected to participate in a Q&a had his screening canceled. On Wednesday, March 4, it was announced by UniFrance that the French delegation would not be attending. Who You Think I Am director Safy Nebbou and Rebecca Zlotowski, along with Batut were the only three filmmakers who attended.

Two films, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s...

One of France's most intriguing and underrated filmmakers, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche has crafted a distinctive body of work over a handful of features (among them Back Home, Dernier maquis and Smugglers' Songs) that often deal with the Franco-Algerian director's own North African diaspora. At once raw and the lyrical, as if they were documentaries melded into impressionistic pieces of fiction, his movies can feel like they were improvised or shot on the fly, and yet reveal a powerful sense of craft and narrative.

In his latest film, South Terminal (Terminal Sud), Ameur-Zaïmeche gives us a dark and abstract political thriller ...

One of France's most intriguing and underrated filmmakers, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche has crafted a distinctive body of work over a handful of features (among them Back Home, Dernier maquis and Smugglers' Songs) that often deal with the Franco-Algerian director's own North African diaspora. At once raw and the lyrical, as if they were documentaries melded into impressionistic pieces of fiction, his movies can feel like they were improvised or shot on the fly, and yet reveal a powerful sense of craft and narrative.

In his latest film, South Terminal (Terminal Sud), Ameur-Zaïmeche gives us a dark and abstract political thriller ...

Nearly a decade after the Arab Spring swept across North Africa, the winds of change have also breathed new life into the region’s film industries, the fruits of which will be on display at this year’s Toronto Intl. Film Festival.

Contemporary World Cinema lead programmer Kiva Reardon, who also curates the festival’s selections from North Africa, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, has noticed an uptick in diverse voices and stories from the region, with women in particular more widely represented. The result, she said, is a more “varied and interesting” portrait of life in North Africa today.

One example is “143 Sahara Street,” Algerian director Hassen Ferhani’s quiet documentary about an off-the-grid café in the Sahara Desert. Offering an intimate portrait of the proprietor and her guests — while training a wider lens on contemporary Algeria — the film both gives rise to “questions of modernization and the...

Film plays in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme after Locarno premiere.

UK sales agent Reason8 has picked up world rights, excluding France, to Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s South Terminal (Terminal Sud), which premiered at Locarno this year and will have its North American bow in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme.

The French and Arabic language feature is set in an unnamed country during a conflict and follows a doctor who is kidnapped to care for a rebel leader and becomes a target for the army.

Ramzy Bedia plays the doctor. The project is Ameur-Zaïmeche’s sixth feature after titles including Story Of Judas,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSTony Todd in Candyman (1992)Jordan Peele's Candyman (a "spiritual sequel" to the 1992 film) has officially started production, with a cast that includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Colman Domingo. Recommended VIEWINGFinally, a closer look at the long-anticipated film A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick's stirring portrait of an Austrian conscientious objector imprisoned during World War II. The official trailer from Alma Har'el's Honey Boy, starring, written by, and based on the childhood of Shia Lebeouf. Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which won both Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at this year's Cannes Film Festival. A warm and whimsical trailer for Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) returns with The Nightingale, which follows an imprisoned woman in colonial Australia,...

The first edition of the Locarno Film Festival under Lili Hinstin’s leadership will include the world premiere to Fabrice du Welz’s Adoration and Valérie Donzelli’s Notre Dame while the likes of Rúnar Rúnarsson, Ulrich Köhler (co-directed feature), Koji Fukada, Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche and Pedro Costa will be presented in the International Competition. Several big auteurs in Jean-Luc Godard, José Luis Guerin and Yorgos Lanthimos are also presenting their short films. Here is the major section line-ups for next month’s fest. Look for a handful of these to debut at Tiff.

Piazza Grande

7500 (Ger/Aus), dir. Patrick Vollrath, world premiere,

Adoration (Bel/Fra), dir.…...

Celebrating its 72nd edition this year, the Locarno Film Festival has been the birthplace for the finest in international arthouse cinema and this year’s lineup looks to continue the tradition. Ahead of the festival, running August 7-17, the full slate has been announced.

Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.

The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...

This year in Toronto is a particularly strong year for Africa and Palestine, with films from Ethiopia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and South Africa. The list includes world premieres but also films that launched their career in the Berlinale, Cannes and Venice.

Read More: Hany Abu-Assad’s 'The Idol' to World Premiere at Tiff!

Below are listed the titles, just click on the link for full programming note and screening dates.

"3000 Nights" dir. Mai Masri "As I Open My Eyes" dir. Leyla Bouzid "Cuckold" dir. Charlie Vundla "Dégradé" dirs. Arab & Tarzan Nasser "The Endless River" dir. Oliver Hermanus "The Idol" dir. Hany Abu-Assad "Lamb" dir. Yared Zeleke "Let Them Come" dir. Salem Brahimi "Much Loved" dir. Nabil Ayouch "Price of Love" dir. Hermon Hailay "Starve Your Dog" dir. Hicham Lasri "Story of Judas" dir. Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche "Very Big Shot" dir. Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya "Nasser" dir. Jihan El-Tahri

Some short films from Africa and the Middle East were selected out of the thousands of shorts submitted to Tiff. Brilliant emerging voices, including Ely Dagher (Lebanon) who won the award for short film in Cannes.

"Waves '98" dir. Ely Dagher "New Eyes" dir. Hiwot Admasu Getaneh "The Call" dir. Zamo Mkhwanazi "The Society" dir. Osama Rasheed...

Films set to show at the 40th Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), updated as announcements are made in the run up to the event.

Tiff will open on September 10 with Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts.

Tiff 40

Key: Wp = world premiere; Nap = North American premiere; IP = international premiere; Cp = Canadian premiere.

GALASBeeba Boys (Canada), Deepa Mehta, WPDemolition, Jean-Marc Vallée WPDisorder (Maryland) (France-Belgium), Alice Winocour NAPThe Dressmaker (Aus), Jocelyn Moorhouse, WPEye In The Sky (UK), Gavin Hood WPForsaken (Canada), Jon Cassar, WPFreeheld (Us), Peter Sollett, WPHyena Road (Canada), Paul Gross, WPLolo (France), Julie Delpy, NAPLegend (UK), Brian Helgeland, IPMan Down (Us), Dito Montiel NAPThe Man Who Knew Infinity (UK), Matt Brown, WPThe Martian (Us), Ridley Scott, WPMiss You Already (UK), Catherine Hardwicke WPMississippi Grind (Us), Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden CPMr. Right (Us), Paco Cabezas WPThe Program (UK), Stephen Frears, WPRemember (Canada), Atom Egoyan, NAPSeptembers Of Shiraz (Us), Wayne Blair, WPStonewall ([link...

Anne Sewitsky‘s Sundance preemed Homesick, Cannes preemed Romanian imports from Radu Muntean‘s One Floor Below and Corneliu Porumboiu‘s The Treasure along with Athina Rachel Tsangari‘s Locarno shown Chevalier are just four of the film titles in the just announced Contemporary World Cinema programme for Tiff. Among the other noteworthy titles in what is mostly a mix of world preems and North American premieres we find Grímur Hákonarson‘s Rams (just picked up by Cohen Media), Alex van Warmerdam well-received Locarno comedy Schneider vs. Bax , the world preem for Sion Sono’s The Whispering Star, and the Oscilloscope Laboratories picked up Ciro Guerra‘s Embrace Of The Serpent. Here are today’s selections that were added to the already announced Canadian items.

25 April (New Zealand), Leanne Pooley Wp

3000 Nights (Palestine-France-Jordan-Lebanon-uae-Qatar), Mai Masri Wp

An (Japan-France-Germany), Naomi Kawase Nap

The Apostate (Spain-France-Uruguay), Federico Veiroj Wp

As I Open...

Due to the large volume of films that the Toronto International Film Festival screens every year, participants often find themselves unsure of how to decide what to see. To that end, festival organisers often distribute the films into numerous programmes to reflect commonalities among them. The Contemporary World Cinema Programme, to that end, looks at the features from filmmakers from around the world, showcasing the talents being displayed from numerous countries.

The full lineup for the 2015 Tiff Contemporary World Cinema Programme has now been announced, adding to the previously announced slate of Canadian Films in the Programme. The films, as well as their official synopses, can be seen below.

25 April, directed by Leanne Pooley, making its World Premiere

Award-winning filmmaker Leanne Pooley utilizes the letters and memoirs of New Zealand soldiers and nurses along with state of the art animation to tell the true story of the 1915 battle of Gallipoli.

Potential awards season contenders Truth from James Vanderbilt and Marc Abraham’s I Saw The Light starring Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams land world premiere slots, while Paco Cabezas’s Mr. Right will close the festival.

London is the subject of the seventh annual City To City programme that features world premieres of Tom Geens’ Couple In A Hole starring Paul Higgins and Kate Dickie and Michael Caton-Jones’ Urban Hymn with Letitia Wright and Shirley Henderson. Elaine Constantine’s Northern Soul gets a North American premiere.

The world premiere of Catherine Hardwicke’s Miss You Already is among five additions to the galas alongside Mr. Right, an action comedy starring Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick.

Matthew Cullen’s Martin Amis adaptation London Fields and David Gordon Green’s Our Brand Is Crisis get first public screenings in the Special Presentations roster with I Saw The Light.

Tiff top brass also unveiled the Contemporary World Cinema section, featuring...

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...

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood showed in Cannes this past May, and one year later we might get a Hood-like eighteenth century hero in Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s fourth feature. Taking a page from Abdellatif Kechiche, Cineuropa reports that Ameur-Zaïmeche (director has seen his previous two films Bled Number One and Dernier Maquis shown on the Croisette) will once again go in front and behind the camera in Les Chants de Mandrin - a French/Belgian/Spanish co-production that started shooting this week. The cast includes Sylvain Roume, Abel Jafri, Sylvain Rifflet, Salim Ameur-Zaïmeche, Christian Milia-Darmezin, Kenji Meunier, Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Nolot. Les Chants de Mandrin opens with the execution of famous outlaw Louis Mandrin, a popular hero of the mid-eighteenth century, this sees the historical figure and his companions set out on a new, risky smuggling campaign in the French provinces. Protected by their weapons, the smugglers organise illegal...

The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) drew to a close with a stunning award ceremony with fireworks, dervish dancing and a rich array of the most wonderful food for hundreds of guests.

The recognition of the best films in the festival and in the AsiaAfrica and Arab Muhr Competitions brought to an end an exciting event in which the crosswinds of Arab nations, Africa and Asia mixed and clarified issues of the film business which will be of great concern for the new cycle the film business is now entering.

The Muhr Awards included a new AsiaAfrica segment embracing films from such emerging markets as Afghanistan, Turkey, Cameroon and Kazakhstan. The Muhr Awards for Excellence in Arab Cinema made a strong show chosen from filmmakers all over the Middle East and around the world. DIFF's Artistic Director Masoud Amralla al Ali had good reason to be proud and the filmmakers will return with future films, judging on their reactions to the royal treatment they received in Dubai.

The prize for Best Emirati Talent went to Haydar Mohammed, Best Emirati Female Filmmaker was presented to Nujoom Al Ghanem and Best Emirati Filmmaker went to Saeed Salmeen Al-Murry. For the first time, the International Federation of Film Critics, or FIPRESCI, awarded a Best Arab Film prize to Masquerades by Lyes Salem.

Other prizes include the Arab Muhr Competition for Feature Film:

* Best Film: Masquerades by Lyes Salem

* Special Jury Prize: Adhen - Dernier Maquis by Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche

Documentary:

* First Prize: 'Thakirat L Sabbar: Hikayat Thalath Qura Falasteenia' ('Memory Of The Cactus: A Story Of Three Palestinian Villages') by Hanna Musleh

* Special Jury Prize: 'Samaan Bidiyaa' ('The One Man Village') by Simon El Habre

* Second Prize: Marina Of The Zabbaleen by Engi Wassef

Best Cinematographer: Luca Coassin for 'Casanegra'

Best Composer: Sylvain Rifflet for 'Adhen - Dernier Maquis'

Best Editor: Nicolas Bancilhon for 'Adhen - Dernier Maquis'

Best Screenplay: Annemarie Jacir for Milh Hadha Al-Bahr ('Salt Of This Sea')

Best Actress: Hafsia Herzi for Francaise

Best Actor: Anas Elbaz and Omar Lotfi for 'Casanegra'

Short Films:

* First Prize: La Route Du Nord ('The North Road') by Carlos Chahine

* Special Jury Prize: 'Bint Mariam' by Saeed Salmeen Al-Murry

* Second Prize: Sa et Asary ('At Day s End') by Sherif El Bendary

Muhr AsiaAfrica Awards

Feature Film:

* Best Film: Treeless Mountain by So Yong Kim

* Special Jury Prize: Kyuka ('Vacation') by Hajime Kadoi

Documentary:

* First Prize: Mental by Kazuhiro Soda

* Special Jury Prize: 'Xiao Li Zi' ('Survival Song') by Guangyi Yu

* Second Prize: Une Affarie De Negres ('Black Business') by Osvalde Lewat

Best Cinematographer: Reza Teymouri for 'Aram Bash Va Ta Haft Beshmar' ('Be Calm And Count To Seven')

Best Composer: Jorga Mesfin, Vijay Iyer for Teza

Best Editor: Sreekar Prasad for Firaaq

Best Screenplay: Deepa Mehta for Heaven On Earth

Best Actress: Anh Hong for Trang Noi Day Gieng ('Moon At The Bottom Of The Well')

Best Actor: Askhat Kuchinchirekov for Tulpan

Short Films:

* First Prize: 'Shao Nian Xue' ('Young Blood) by Haolun Shu

* Special Jury Prize: 'Expectations' by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

* Second Prize: 'Kam Sanabanyz' ('Everything Is OK') by Akjoltoy Bekbolotov

The festival had previously announced the results of the second annual Dubai Film Connection (DFC), established to bring Arab and international film professionals together. DFC selected 18 projects from 108 submissions, of which three were awarded a US$25,000 Dubai International Film Festival Prize: 'This is my Picture When I Was Dead' by Mahmoud al Massad (Jordan-Netherlands); 'Barbershop Trinity' by Chadi Zeneddine (Lebanon); and 'Ouardia Once Had Sons' by Djamila Sahraoui (Algeria-Morocco). The three producers of the three projects will attend the prestigious 2009 Cannes Producers Network.

'Every Day is a Holiday' by Dima El-Hor (Lebanon-France) won the DIFF Desert Door Work in Progress Award, the 6,000 Euro ‘"International Relations" prize from French broadcaster Arte went to 'Death for Sale' by Faouzi Bensaiei (Morocco-France-Belgium); and the new Bahrain Film Production Company Works in Progress Award went to 'When I Saw You' by Annemarie Jacir (Palestine-Jordan). The new Young Journalist Award, instituted in 2008 to stimulate interest in film criticism as a career in the region, went to Melissa Khan of Mahe Manipal University in Dubai.

Winners of cash prizes from 21 competing projects in the Dubai Film Connection were chosen by a jury. Global film funds, sales companies and distributors will make deals with the winners of cash prizes, which total about $118,000. The Work In Progress Award of $25,000 from Kuwait company Desert Door went to 'Every Day Is A Holiday', a French/ Lebanese/ German co-production by Dima El-Horr and produced by Thierry Lenourvel. 'When I Saw You' by AnneMarie Jacir from Palestine won the $10,000 Bahrain Film Pfoduction Co. award for projects in development. 'Death For Sale' by Morroccan director Faouzi Bensaidi, on the 6,000 Euro prize from ARTE in France. Aside from the DIFF itself, there are numerous other activities all being ably managed by Shivani Pandya, Managing Director. These concurrent events have commanded great interest. The Co-Production Market run by Jane Williams, formerly with Binger Institut of Amsterdam, Hubert Bals Fund and the Rotterdam Cinemart is showing three works in progress including the Sundance FF 2009 Competition film 'Amreeka' by Cherien Dabis plus a list of other films in various stages of development. Working with Julie Bergeron of the Cannes Market Co-Production Market, the Co-Production Market is opening the doors between East and West in a notably winning style made possible to the warm hospitality of the people of Dubai. The Film Market where you can see every film in the festival plus more in a virtual on-demand video market has made its first deal with Alchemy Films picking up the South African feature ' Mr. Bones 2' for the Middle East. 'Mr Bones' producer, Anant Singh, also a favorite son of Los Angeles as well as of South Africa, is in Dubai with the international premiere of the documentary 'More Than Just a Game'. The Dubai Film Market, run by Zaid Yaghi is built on the model of IDFA's documentary market run by Fred De Haas who also manages the Documentary Market at IDFA. Tom Davia, Head of Programme Administration and Film Services also works with the Miami Film Festival. Other attendees here inlcude Thierry Lenouvel whose film 'Rachel' will be in the Berlinale 2009, Filmmaker Magazine and Forensic Films' Scott Maccaulay, Nadia Saah of New York, whose new company Boomgen Studios creates content and, most importantly, creates niche marketing and distribution for films with Middle Eastern content, Iran's M. Mehdi Yadegan of IRIM Media Trade, the largest TV station in the Middle East, producer Caroline Benjo of Haut et Court, international sales agents Pascal Diot of Onoma Films and Wouter Barendrecht of Fortissimo, Raphael Berdugo of Roissy, who is also a producer of 'Caramel', a Lebanese film which was in the Festival de Cannes and has been a great box office success in Lebanon. And, of course, FilmFinders is here seeing what new developments in the Middle East are being created in this time of great change in our film industry.

• Highlighted by the presence of Jim Jarmusch (who will be receiving a special award called the Carrosse d’Or), the 40th year of the Director's Fortnight doesn't look as strong on paper as the previous edition, but the quality of this year's fair will be better determined in ten days or so. Containing a good amount of French productions, the section offers many first time efforts from filmmakers who get to tell their children that they took part in an event that showcases auteur cinema from the greats. Here are five to look out for. Boogie (Radu Muntean) It seems that every year a Romanian film shows up at Cannes andt steals the thunder away from other eastern European producing countries. After her career-defining role in 4 months..., Anamaria Marinca next stars in Radu Muntean's portrait - think a coming-of-age film for a grown up male who hasn't got his yeah yeahs out.

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• Offering no shortage of world premieres from auteur filmmakers, the 40th edition of the Directors’ Fortnight contains exactly half of the films being produced or co-produced from the fest’s home turf, this year it will be a mostly French affair. Among the more popular names we find the festival opener slot (announced yesterday) belonging to the long-awaited return of Jerzy Skolimowski and his latest and we also find the likes of former folk who’ve contributed to the section in the past: Joachim Lafosse (Private Property) and Bertrand Bonello (Tiresia) and Claire Simon (Ça brûle). A common meeting place for auteur cinema, a special film was designed to recall the history of the section with testimonies from a who's who of favorite directors in Todd Haynes, Jacques Rozier, Costa Gavras, Michael Raeburn, Ken Loach, Alain Tanner, Carlos Diegues, Werner Herzog, Theo Angelopoulos, André Téchiné, Chantal Akerman, the Taviani brothers,

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