Idea Transcript
Expanded program includes 25 projects
DFI announces new round of grants winners
Film
LOS ANGELES, May 16, (RTRS): The Doha Film Institute has announced its expanded latest round of grantees comprising twenty-five projects. Twenty-three are by first and second-time filmmakers from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and around the world, while two are from more established names. The veterans tapping into DFI support are Palestinian director Mai Masri whose drama “3000 Nights,” about a newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher who gives birth to her son in prison, is in post. Also in post is Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s “Madame Courage,”
about an unstable and lonely teenager living in a slum in the suburbs of Mostaganem, in Algeria. Former DFI grantees, Spanish/Lebanese filmmaker Leila Hotait Salas (“Crayons of Askalan”) and Tunusia’s Nejib Belkadhi (‘Bastardo’) are also returning with new projects. Hotait Salas’ new feature “Stolen Skies,” is set against the demonstrations in Cairo in 2011, while Belkadhi’s new pic “Retina,” is about a Tunisian immigrant forced to return to his country to take care of his autistic son. In an interview DFI CEO Fatma Al Remain proudly noted the great feedback received for the DFI’s
recent new concept event called Qumra which blends creative workshop and festival elements and mixes master classes with industry networking sessions and screenings. DFI grants manager Khalil Benkirane noted that “we also had Qumra in mind in making our grants selection.” Represented MENA countries include Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia and UAE.
Projects Projects selected for grants for the DFI’s Qatari film fund will be announced after Cannes. The DFI has also announced that the third edition of its Ajyal Youth
Film Festival will be held from November 29 to December 5, 2015, running one day longer than before. DFI-supported film screening in Cannes this year comprise “Degrade,” by Palestinian twins Tarzan and Arab Abunasser and “Mediterranea” by Italy’s Jonas Carpignano both screening in Critics’ Week. Also “Lamb” by Ethiopian director Yared Zeleke in Un Certain Regard, and “Mustang” by Turkish director Deniz Gamze Erguven in Directors’ Fortnight. The DFI fund is primarily for first and second-time filmmakers. But has now also been opened up to pics in post from MENA region filmmakers.
Submissions for the next round of DFI funding will open on July 18. Below is the full list of Spring 2015 DFI Grantees: Development Feature Narrative Seeking the Man with the Camera by Boutheyna Bouslama (Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Qatar)An investigative documentary that follows the narrator as she seeks out Seymo, a childhood friend with whom she used to play in the streets of Homs. Stolen Skies by Laila Hotait Salas (Lebanon, Qatar)Against the backdrop of the demonstrations in Cairo in 2011, a woman wants to remem-
ber the Lebanese lover she had 30 years ago — but first she will need to forgive herself. Tin Hinan by Muhannad Lamin (Libya, Qatar)A mythical coming-of-age tale in which a young girl is forced to travel into the Sahara to find a new home, ‘Tin Hinan’ depicts the struggle for identity in the midst of a revolution. Production Feature Narrative 1982 by Oualid Mouaness (Lebanon, Qatar)When 11-year-old Wissam decides to tell a classmate that he loves her, his will is challenged, his courage falters and an impending war threatens to separate them permanently.
SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2015
Features
Variety
British singer Cheryl Fernandez-Versini poses as she arrives for the screening of the film ‘Irrational Man’ at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southeastern France on May 15. (AFP)
Film Emirati director Mostafa to shoot ‘Worthy’ with US filmmakers LOS ANGELES: Jeremy Irons, Virginia Madsen, AnnaSophia Robb and Rory Culkin will star in action-comedy “Monumental” with filming starting July 6. Producers are Eric Fischer and Brianna Lee Johnson from Dead Fish Films. Brett Simon is directing from a script by Annie Burgstede and Chad Faust. Kathy Morgan International is handling foreign pre-sales at Cannes. CAA is handling domestic rights. Culkin and Robb will portray a young couple who have accidentally killed their tyrant boss and kidnapped a wise-cracking Vietnam Veteran relative, played by Irons. Madsen will play an FBI agent hot on their trail. Executive producers are Aaron Gilbert, Robert Odgen Barnum, 3 Point Capital, Ksana Golod, James Bryant and George Parra. London Pacific Finance provided development funding. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑
LOS ANGELES: Atlas Entertainment has tapped Jamie Foxx to star in Noam Murro’s drama “Blink” with production starting this fall. Murro will direct from a Black List script written by Hernany Perla. Atlas Entertainment’s William Green and Aaron Ginsburg are producing with Atlas’ Jake Kurily serving as an executive producer. Highland Film Group is handling international sales at the Cannes Film Festival. CAA is handling US rights. Foxx will play a hospital caregiver tasked with caring for a mysterious victim of a bank robber. As the two become closer, it’s revealed the caregiver has ulterior motives of his own. Murro recently directed Warner Bros.’ “300: Rise of an Empire,” starring Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green and Lena Headey. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑
LOS ANGELES: Bruce Willis will star as a Los Angeles private investigator in an untitled action-comedy for Voltage Pictures with shooting starting June 29 in Venice, Calif.
EU producers to ride Arab new wave LOS ANGELES, May 16, (RTRS): The proliferation of Arab projects being developed with European producers and filmmakers at this year’s Cannes market suggests that despite political turmoil, and the escalation of antiMuslim sentiment in France after the January attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, strong ties between the cultures are being forged. Underlining this broad artistic and financial accord is the Arab Cinema Center, the first Arab film industry umbrella group to attend Cannes, comprising some 17 film outfits and orgs from eight Arab and European countries. “We need to do more work as Arab filmmakers,” notes Egyptian helmer Marwan Hamed, who is bullish on the Arab Cinema Center being at Cannes. “We have to do more lobbying and marketing for what we are (creating).” The Center, which will act as a focal point for the international film industry to engage with what is being touted as a New Arab Wave, is coming to Cannes thanks to marketing and theatrical distribution company Mad Solutions, based in Cairo and Abu Dhabi. Mad, headed by film analyst Alaa Karkouti, is experimenting with social-media-based strategies — connecting potential ticket buyers to films via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, for example — to boost box office prospects among home audiences for Arab movies. The group has had some encouraging results, most recently with Mohamed Khan’s female-empowerment melodrama “Factory Girl,” which was a hit across the Middle East, including Egypt. The film also scored a rare theatrical release in Sweden. Mad has been behind such successful releases as Jordanian first-timer Naji Abu Nowar’s Bedouin Western “Theeb,” and “Warda,” touted as a “Blair Witch”-like Arab chiller. The challenge in expanding the Arab film industry’s international horizons is that “it’s really rare to find a project that can interest
Voltage Pictures will be launching international sales in Cannes. Voltage, CAA and WME will be representing US rights. Willis’s character, a contemporary throwback to hardboiled Los Angeles detectives, will see his professional and personal worlds collide when his dog Buddy is stolen by a
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audiences both in the Arab world and in Europe,” says Mohamed Hefzy, topper of Egyptian shingle Film Clinic, which is participating in the Cinema Center. At Cannes, there are many Arab projects suitable for global cross-pollination. For instance, “Degrade,” directed by Palestinian twins Arab and Tarzan Abunasser, is a comedy that focuses on a group of women stuck in a Gaza hair salon while mayhem breaks out across the street. The pic, a joint effort between Arab and French producers, unspools in Critics’ Week at Cannes.
Circulated “Degrade” made the rounds of the European co-production mart circuit, where it tapped into France’s Breizh Film Fund, among others. Produced by Rashid Abdelhamid of the Jordan-based Made in Palestine Project in tandem with Marie Legrand and Rani Massalha of Paris-based Les Films du Tambour, the picture will be offered at Cannes by French sales company Elle Driver. The movie also circulated on the Middle East festival scene, where it was adopted by the Doha Film Institute. Another production headed to Cannes is “Clash,” an Islamic fundamentalism-themed thriller by Egyptian auteur Mohamed Diab (“Cairo 678”). France’s National Center of Cinematography and the Moving Image announced that the film will be supported by its Cinemas du Monde fund, which had not given coin to an Egyptian pic in many years. Paris-based producer Daniel Ziskind recently boarded “Clash” as Film Clinic’s European representative. Hefzy and French producerdistributor Eric Lagesse, whose Pyramide is co-producing — and will be pre-selling the film in the Cannes market — both see the Charlie Hebdo attacks as adding urgency to movie, set inside a police wagon in Cairo packed with both pro- and anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators. Franco-German
Willis
notorious gang. He faces off against ruthless gang leaders, angry Samoan brothers, a loan shark and his goons and many other shady characters in his effort to get Buddy back. The film will be directed by Mark and Robb Cullen. Mark Cullen, Robb Cullen, Nicolas Chartier, Zev Foreman and
network Arte also has joined the production, which will start shooting in September. Another Islamic fundamentalism-themed project being set up as a joint Arab-European effort is the big-budget “Assassins,” about Hassan-i-Sabbah, the charismatic 11th century leader whose cult, which assassinated its political rivals, is considered the forerunner of AlQaeda and Isis. Hamed (“The Yacoubian Building”) is developing the film. “ ‘Assassins’ is a new territory I’m entering. It’s an epic, it’s historical and it’s political,” says the director, who will certainly need European coin to put his vision on the screen. And, judging by the way French and Arab filmmakers are eagerly forming alliances, it shouldn’t be long before cameras roll. Film Clinic’s Hefzy sees the rise in co-productions as being enabled by a cross-cultural awareness. ❑
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Emirati director Ali Mostafa, whose buddy/road movie “From A to B” opened last’s year’s Abu Dhabi film fest, is reteaming with Image Nation Abu Dhabi on futuristic thriller “The Worthy,” which will go into production later this year with the US producers behind “The Conjuring” and “Paranormal Activity” on board to shepherd this quite unique Arabic genre pic. Hollywood veterans Peter Safran (“The Conjuring,” “Annabelle”) and Steven Schneider (“Paranormal Activity,” “Insidious”) have come on board to produce the project with Mostafa’s regional producer Rami Yasin (“Sea Shadow,” “From A to B”). “The Worthy,” which is penned by US writer Vicram Weet (“Twisted,” “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”) is set in a dystopian future that has been plunged into chaos due to a chronic water shortage. It follows a small group of survivors seeking refuge with the only remaining clean water source in the area.
Laura Ford will be producing. (RTRS) ❑ ❑ ❑
LOS ANGELES: Odin’s Eye Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to “Bad Cat,” an adult animated adventure from Turkey’s Anima Istanbul. The film is an adaptation of
“It’s set in a not-so-distant future in a period when things have changed,” Mostafa said. The setting, as well as the language, will be Arabic. The characters will come from different parts of the Arab world. Plan is for shooting to start this year in an as yet undecided Arab location. “Image Nation Abu Dhabi is able to create projects like this due to our unique ability to team Hollywood expertise with local talent,” said its CEO Michael Garin in a statement.
Also: LOS ANGELES: Variety has partnered with UN Women in support of their HeForShe campaign to host a landmark panel on the subject of gender equality at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. Moderated by Variety’s editor in chief Claudia Eller, the discussion will include actress Salma Hayek, Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and “Carol” producers Christine Vachon and Elizabeth Karlsen, whose lesbian drama stars Cate Blanchett and premieres this Sunday. “The issue of gender equality within our industry has rarely been in greater need of frank and open discussion,” Variety publisher Michelle Sobrino said. “We’re proud to partner with UN Women and to welcome some of the industry’s leading creative voices to impart their experiences and insights on this imperative issue.” Co-moderator of the panel, Elizabeth Nyamayaro of UN Women, added: ‘Following the launch of last year’s Emma Watson-fronted HeForShe campaign, the empowerment of women within the film space has been under a greater spotlight than ever before. Our partnership with Variety in this initiative keeps the momentum rolling, and offers a platform for some of cinema’s leading female filmmakers and performers to have their say at the industry’s most prestigious festival.”
the comic book series of the same name by Bulent Ustun. The movie is directed by Mehmet Kurtulus and Ayse Unal. The story involves a sleazy, sexed up cat who discovers he is the father of a son. “Bad Cat is an altogether different kind of ‘Dirty Hairy’,” said Odin’s Eye director
Michael Favelle. He is pitching the movie as Tarantino meets “Top Cat.” Director, Michael Favelle. “It’s a great addition to our expanding slate of high quality theatrical animation titles and initial buyer reaction to this glorious scoundrel of a character is extremely positive”. (RTRS)