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Saeed Taji Farouky’s Egypt-uk co-production Standing At The Ruins is among the eight work-in-progress features selected for the 13th Final Cut in Venice industry lab.

Standing At The Ruins is a fiction feature, selected as part of the Final Cut’s Focs on the UK. The lab as a whole is open to feature projects from African countries plus Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen.

Scroll down for the full list of Final Cut in Venice titles

Palestinian-uk director Farouky has previously directed three feature documentaries, including 2021’s A Thousand Fires which debuted at Locarno.

Other titles in...

Final Cut in Venice, the Venice Film Festival industry program supporting works in progress from all African countries and Middle East territories Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Yemen, has unveiled its 2025 selection.

They include documentary Legacy, the third feature from Senegalese director Mamadou Dia after Nafi’s Father, which won Locarno’s Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present section in 2019, and Demba, which played in Berlin in 2024.

Yemeni-uk director Sara Ishaq will present The Station, about a women-only petrol station in a gender-segregated, war-torn village in Yemen. It is her second feature after 2013 breakout documentary The Mulberry House.

The 13th edition of Final Cut in Venice will take place within the context of Venice’s Venice Production Bridge industry sidebar from August 31 to September 2.

The first two days of the program be dedicated to screenings of the selected films followed by one-to-one meetings between the producer and...

Exclusive: Palestinian filmmakers Cherien Dabis and May Odeh are teaming up with Canadian producer Ina Fichman on an adaptation of Suad Amiry’s 2003 novel Sharon And My Mother-In-Law.

Amiry’s novel is an account of living in the West Bank from the early eighties up until 2003, including a period when her mother-in-law moved in during the Israeli invasion of Ramallah in March 2000.

“The film is about the everyday harassment of the Israeli soldiers that never makes it into the news,” says Ramallah-based writer, architect and conservationist Amiry.

The book gives a wry but piercing human glimpse into the reality of life in Occupied Palestine. It was translated into 17 languages and also won Italy’s prestigious Viareggio Prize for literature in 2003.

“What I love so much about Sharon And My Mother-in-Law is Suad Amiry’s sharp and often hilarious observations of the absurdities of life under occupation. I’m very excited...

Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos prize for best film at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran from October 31-November 10.

The family drama centring on an Arab-speaking Israeli family premiered earlier this year in Venice’s Horizons strand, winning best screenplay. Copti had previously won the best film and screenplay prizes at Thessaloniki in 2009 for his Academy Award nominated Ajami.

The Silver Alexander for best director went to Belgian Leonardo van Dijl for his debut feature Julie Keeps Quiet, winner of the Sacd award in Cannes Critics’ Week sidebar.

The jury of the international competition,...

Greek filmmakers Stergios Dinopoulos and Krysianna Papadakis’ romantic adventure “Bearcave” and Turkish director Ahu Ozturk’s drama “The Hunchback” took the top prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry award ceremony Wednesday night.

Based on a 2023 short film of the same name, “Bearcave,” which is the feature debut of the Greek writing and directing duo, won the Authorwave Post-Production Award, the top prize in the Agora’s Works in Progress section, offering image services in post-production. The Crossroads Co-Production Forum, meanwhile, gave its top honors — the Two Thirty-Five Co-Production Award, offering full post-production image and sound to a film that’s currently in development — to “The Hunchback”, Ozturk’s sophomore feature and the follow-up to her 2015 Berlinale premiere “Dust Cloth.”

“Bearcave,” which tells the story of a mystical cave and an unexpected betrayal that spurs a romantic adventure between two childhood friends, was praised by the jury for its “unique style,...

The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s business part, the Agora, ended with top awards for filmmakers from Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

The award-winning Greek film “African Grey” won the prestigious Onassis Film Award and the 10,000 euro prize that goes with it. The judges liked the film’s creative way of telling stories and its potential to change people’s perceptions of a classic genre.

The Crossroads Co-production Forum at the festival showed 15 projects from 17 countries. It was an essential place for filmmakers to meet people in the business and get money. Orestis Andreadakis, the artistic director, talked about how successful the event was and said that 13 of the films in the Official Selection had been to the Agora before.

The Turkish movie “The Hunchback” by Ahu Ozturk got another important award: the Two Thirty-Five (2|35) Award for post-production support. People liked how honest the project was about how...

Exclusive: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s industry-focused Agora section has selected 15 projects from 17 countries for this year’s Crossroads Co-production Forum. Scroll down for the full list of projects.

Hailing from across southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean region, the projects are in various stages of development. The selection features debut and sophomore feature films alongside more experienced directors.

Among the notable projects is the latest feature film by prolific Romanian director Adrian Sitaru. There are also sophomore film projects from Yorgos Goussis, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Diego Llorente, Nikola Mijović, Ahu Ozturk, Sonia Liza Kenterman, and Ahmad Ghossein. Debut feature filmmakers are Neritan Zinxhiria and Thelyia Petraki.

The selected projects hail from countries including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Kosovo*, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Palestine, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. This year’s selection was co-curated by an advisory committee featuring industry consultant Thibaut Bracq...

Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters lead the nominations for the 8th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Both features picked up seven nominations apiece for the awards, focused on Arab films that were produced and premiered outside of the Arab world in 2023. Overseen and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), it was voted on by 209 critics from 72 countries and the winners will be announced during Cannes on May 18.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

This year’s nominees range from Sudan,...

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s Lupita Nyong’o-EPed drama Goodbye Julia lead the nominations in the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

Hybrid work Four Daughters, exploring the story of a real-life Tunisian mother who lost two of her daughters to Isis after they were radicalized by a local preacher, world premiered in Competition in Cannes last year.

The film won Cannes’ Golden Eye for Best Documentary and also went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Kordofani’s Khartoum-set drama Goodbye Julia was also at Cannes in 2023, making history as the first Sudanese film to play in the festival across its 76 editions, with a debut in Un Certain Regard. It represented Sudan at in the 2023-24 Oscar race but was not nominated.

Set against the backdrop of the 2011 South Sudan Independence referendum,...

The Key, a historical symbol used by the Palestinian people to represent their diaspora from 1948 until today, is the title given by Rakan Mayasi to his short film presented at the 29th Medfilm Festival. The celebration of Middle Eastern cinema wrapped up in Rome on Sunday, Nov. 19.

In a twist on the home invasion genre, Mayasi’s drama, adapted from a short story by Anwar Hamed, sees an Israeli family tormented by a mysterious and disturbing sound that slowly reveals itself to the audience as the sound of a key in a lock. It’s as if someone outside, who has a key to the house, is trying to return. It’s a clear political metaphor, especially for those, like director Mayasi, who are among more than seven million Palestinians living in the diaspora.

Mayasi spoke to The Hollywood Reporter Roma about The Key and the role of Palestinian cinema...

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 International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has revealed the 26 projects selected as part of this year’s Red Sea Souk Market, which will run Dec. 2-5.

“The Red Sea Souk Project Market will present 26 feature-length projects from across the Arab and African region, offering a first opportunity for the industry audience to connect and build future opportunities with these projects,” organizers said on Tuesday.

Part of the selection are 12 “Red Sea Lodge” projects which were developed during the year through workshops and in partnership with the Torino Film Lab. Four of them will be awarded the annual Red Sea Lodge production prizes of $50,000 each.

All 26 projects in the market will compete for cash prizes offered by the Red Sea Fund, to be awarded by an international jury of producers. They are worth $35,000 for development, $25,000 for the jury special mention award and $100,000 for production.

Meanwhile, the...

The Red Sea International Film Festival, has unveiled the 26 projects selected as part of its industry-focused Red Sea Souk Market, running from December 2 to 5.

Projects in development include Palestinian director Scandar Copti’s A Childhood, Lebanese-French filmmaker Danielle Arbid’s Love Conquers All and Madness And Honey Days by Iraq’s Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji.

Within the Market selection are twelve Red Sea Lodge projects which were developed during the year through intensive workshops and in partnership with the 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 will compete for cash prizes offered by the Red Sea Fund, to be awarded by an international jury of producers: $35,000 for development, $25,000 for the Jury Special Mention Award and $100,000 for production

Another six projects will be showcased in Works-In-Progress section including Men In The Sun by Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel,...

The festival runs November 11-19

The Marrakech International Film Festival (November 11-19) has mapped out its 2022 Atlas Workshops programme with 23 projects and films selected for its 5th edition.

The Moroccan festival’s industry platform will feature 16 projects in development and six films in post-production from 11 countries. The project incubator and industry platform was launched in 2018 and was held online in 2020 and 2021. This will be its return to an in-person event set for Nov 14-17. The program aims to support the next generation of Moroccan, Arab and African filmmakers by giving their projects exposure on the international stage during the global,...

Kenneth Branagh’s black-and-white drama “Belfast” has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF announced on Saturday.

The gentle drama, which is based on Branagh’s childhood growing up in Northern Ireland, won over Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson’s “Scarborough,” a story of three low-income children that finished second, and Jane Campion’s revisionist Western “The Power of the Dog,” which finished third.

In its review of the film from TIFF, TheWrap wrote, “Visually stunning, emotionally wrenching and gloriously human, ‘Belfast’ takes one short period from Branagh’s life and finds in it a coming-of-age story, a portrait of a city fracturing in an instant and a profoundly moving lament for what’s been lost during decades of strife in his homeland of Northern Ireland.”

Other films in competition for the award included “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and “The Guilty.

ThelmaA selection of films from the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with new films by Sebastián Lelio, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Darren Aronofsky, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo Del Toro, Joachim Trier, Wim Wenders, and many more.Special PRESENTATIONSOpening Night: Ladybird (Greta Gerwig)Closing Night: Sheikh Jackson (Amr Salama)Battle of the Sexes (Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton)Bpm (Beats Per Minute) (Robin Campillo)The Brawler (Anurag Kashyap)The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino)Catch the Wind (Gaël Morel)The Children Act (Richard Eyre)The Current War (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)Disobedience (Sebastián Lelio)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio)First They Killed My Father (Angelina Jolie)The Guardians (Xavier Beauvois)Hostiles (Scott Cooper)The Hungry (Bornila Chatterjee)I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)Mother! (Darren Aronofsky)Novitiate (Maggie Betts)Omerta (Hansal Mehta)Plonger (Mélanie Laurent)The Price of Success (Teddy Lussi-Modeste)Professor Marston & the Wonder Women...