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Netflix has come under fire from several human rights groups over its non-renewal of 19 films that were part of its “Palestinian Stories” collection launched in October of 2021.

These films will soon exit the service because the rights acquired by Netflix as part of its licensing deal will end at the end of the month. This standard content licensing practice is also the reason why “Friends” is no longer available in the U.S. or Mr. Robot” is no longer available in Arabic countries.

The streamer still has titles by Palestinian creators on its service.

“We are deeply concerned by Netflix’s decision to delete at least 19 films by Palestinian filmmakers or about Palestinian stories from your platform last week” human rights organization Freedom Forward said in a letter to the streamer posted on their website.

Freedom Forward noted that the “Palestinian Stories” page now shows only one film that is available for viewing.

East End Film Festival has unveiled its 2014 award winners, bringing 13th edition to a close.

White Shadow has won the Best Feature award at this year’s East End Film Festival (Eeff).

Noaz Deshe’s debut feature is set in Tanzania and, focusing on a young albino, is an exploration of folk religion.

The film was chosen by a jury comprising of Eeff’s director-in-residence Sebastian Hofmann, Screen International chief film critic Mark Adams, BFI director of partnerships Eddie Berg, English photographer and video artist Gillian Wearing and screenwriter Peter Straughan.

Deshe will be invited to the festival in 2015 as director-in-residence.

In addition, Tom Berninger’s Mistaken for Strangers was named Best Documentary by a jury comprising British film-makers Iain Forsythe and Jane Pollard, director Emad Burnat, documentary film-maker Tristan Anderson and BBC Storyville’s Shanida Scotland.

The inaugural Accession Award, championing the art of cinematography, was judged by Barry Ackroyd and awarded to Jonathan Fairburn’s [link...

Burdened with a preponderance of surrealist imagery, Jessica Habie's Mars at Sunrise merely concerns a painter, but it feels as if it were made by one.

Using its narrative as a launching pad for abstract visuals, the picture reminds viewers that even the most striking images demand context to create anything like drama.

Our painter is Khaled (Ali Suliman), a Palestinian who recounts his story in flashback to a young woman (Haale Gafori) at a Gaza checkpoint. Displaced from his home, Khaled wound up in Ramallah, where he was arrested and imprisoned — and tormented by Eyal (Guy Elhanan), an Israeli soldier who tortures and berates him for much of the film's duration.

Mars at Sunrise's main conceit is that Khaled's torment is not portrayed wit...

Film-makers Jessica Habie and Deema Dabis have launched the Fajr Falestine Film Fund to support production of experimental films from the Middle East with particular emphasis on Palestinian films.

Us-based non-profit The Eyes Infinite Foundation will run the fund, which aims to create a film collective in which five selected film-makers will receive financial support.

The five inaugural film-makers selected by the Film Fund’s ‘Pillars’, a panel of international artists and scholars, are: Jessica Habie, Deema Dabis, Rashid Abdelhamid and a pair of film-makers calling themselves Tarzan and Arab.

The judges include Amreeka director Cherien Dabis, writer-actress Najla Said, film scholar Robert Keser, Arab Film Festival programmer Laurence Mazouni, film-maker Natalie Handalm, Palestinian artist Sharif Waked and film-maker Iman Aoun.

The goal is to release five projects every two years, growing the funding pool every year over a 10-year period until the collective is able to develop, produce and distribute five feature projects every funding cycle.

The...