Latest news with #ArabCinema
Arab News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Red Sea-backed films set to shine at 2025 Locarno Film Festival
DUBAI: Three films supported by the Red Sea Film Foundation will feature at this year's Locarno Film Festival, which takes place in Switzerland from Aug. 6-16. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ Among the 2025 lineup are 'Irkalla – Gilgamesh's Dream' by Iraqi filmmaker Mohamed Al-Daradji, 'Becoming' by Kazakh director Zhannat Alshanova, and 'Exile' from Tunisian filmmaker Mehdi Hmili. A post shared by Red Sea Film Foundation (@redseafilm) Each was backed by the foundation through either the Red Sea Fund or the Red Sea Souk, two initiatives designed to champion bold new voices from the Arab world and beyond. 'Irkalla – Gilgamesh's Dream' offers a reimagining of the Epic of Gilgamesh set against a haunting contemporary backdrop. The film follows a street kid with diabetes as he tries to persuade his tough best friend, the legendary Gilgamesh, to take him to the underworld Arkala. 'Becoming' by Alshanova, a London-based writer/director from Kazakhstan, follows a young woman grappling with identity and independence in modern-day Kazakhstan. 'Exile,' from Hmili, is a powerful portrait of displacement and belonging. In the biggest steel factory of Tunisia, four workers suffering from psychological and physical disorders are haunted by the loss of their colleague. In an atmosphere of social and political tension, their struggle will help them overcome their pain. The Red Sea Film Foundation said it was 'proud to have supported these exceptional projects' and celebrated their selection as a milestone moment for regional cinema.
The National
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Soudade Kaadan and Elia Suleiman invited to join Academy behind the Oscars
Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan and Palestinian director Elia Suleiman are among the Middle East figures who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation behind the Oscars. Kaadan is best known for Nezouh, a surreal coming-of-age story set in war-torn Damascus, which won the Armani Beauty Audience Award at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Her 2018 film, The Day I Lost My Shadow, was also awarded at Venice and became the first Syrian film to screen at the festival in decades. Suleiman, meanwhile, is a seminal figure in Arab cinema, known for works like Divine Intervention and It Must Be Heaven, which explore themes of Palestinian identity and struggle under Israeli occupation through satire and deadpan humour. Kaadan and Suleiman's inclusion comes as part of the Academy's latest round of membership invitations, extended to 534 figures from across filmmaking disciplines. Prominent international names includes Ariana Grande, Dave Bautista, Mikey Madison, Kieran Culkin and Jason Momoa. Those who accept the invitation become voting members of the Academy, with the power to help shape Oscars nominations and winners. They're also eligible to join one of its 18 branches, from directing and writing, to documentary and editing. More than half of those invited come from countries and territories outside the US, in what appears to be a bid to diversify the voting ranks of the Oscars. The Academy, which has more than 10,000 members, has long faced criticism for its lack of representation, particularly in terms of race, gender and geography. The #OscarsSoWhite backlash of 2015 and 2016 sparked a reckoning within the institution, spurring an initiative to broaden its membership and better reflect the global community. 'We are thrilled to invite this esteemed class of artists, technologists, and professionals to join the Academy,' said Bill Kramer and Janet Yang, the Academy's chief executive and president respectively. 'Through their commitment to filmmaking and to the greater movie industry, these exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community.' There is a marked presence of Arab and Middle Eastern talent in the wave of membership. These include several Palestinian talents, such as Mediterranean Fever director Maha Haj, Wedding in Galilee director Michel Khleifi, Another Body editor Rabab Haj Yahya as well as Hamdan Ballal and Basel Adra, recognised for co-directing No Other Land, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature this year. The documentary follows the struggles faced by Palestinian journalist Basel Adra as he tries to protect his West Bank village Masafer Yatta from Israeli settlers. Asmae El Moudir was also invited to join the Academy. The Moroccan filmmaker is known for her documentary The Mother of All Lies, the country's submission for best international feature film at the 2024 Oscars. The growing presence of Arab filmmakers in the Academy is an uplifting shift in an organisation that has long focused on Hollywood. Their inclusion brings regional narratives into global focus, while also empowering filmmakers from across the region to shape how cinema is perceived in the industry's most influential stage.
Al Bawaba
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
Turki Al-Sheikh confirms The Blue Elephant 3 with Karim Abdel Aziz: 'It Will Be Fire!'
ALBAWABA - Karim Abdel Aziz returns in The Blue Elephant 3 as Turki Al-Sheikh promises cinematic brilliance. Following the release of a picture of His Excellency, Counselor Turki Al-Sheikh, with the Blue Elephant film crew on his official Facebook page, there was a tremendous deal of public discussion. His remark, "The Blue Elephant will be fire," made it apparent that formal preparations for the third installment of this film—which is regarded as one of the most popular in Egyptian cinema—had begun. This action further demonstrates His Excellency's dedication to promoting Arab filmmaking and broadening its worldwide reach. He earlier expressed his wish to showcase The Blue Elephant 3 in a unique manner that surpasses audience expectations in an interview with Amr Adeeb, saying, "We seek to make The Blue Elephant go beyond its usual boundaries." Since this project is a profitable investment for all parties, we wholeheartedly support it. We anticipate that Blue Elephant 3 and 4 will set a new global standard, and there are presently agreements to fully support the fourth phase as well." It is important to remember that the first installment of the movie, which combined mystery, drama, and psychological suspense, was released in 2014 and was a giant hit with both audiences and critics. After a five-year break, psychiatrist Yehia Rashed returns to work at Abbasiya Hospital in the movie. Several tense events are set in motion when he becomes involved in assessing the mental health of a criminal who subsequently turns out to be an old buddy. Karim Abdel Aziz Instagram profile Critics did, however, express some disagreement with the movie. The Blue Elephant and the 2007 New Zealand movie The Tattoo share some dramatic lines, according to historian Mahmoud Kassem. Ahmed Murad, the original novel's author, acknowledged that the novel's and the movie's endings differed and that the latter was changed for the film's benefit to appeal to a larger audience.
Arab News
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Arab storytelling tradition makes region ideal for filmmaking: Katara executive
Riyadh: The Arab world's roots in detailed storytelling means that the region is well suited to making movies, according to Hussein Fakhri, chief commercial officer and executive producer for Katara Studios, and the latest guest on The Mayman Show. Founded in 2018, the Doha-based production powerhouse is behind regionally iconic projects such as the fantasy short film 'The Lost Chapter of Kelileh & Demneh' and the ceremonies for the 2022 FIFA Arab Cup. 'Storytelling, I think, is in our DNA, as Arabs generally, right? We come from a long line of storytellers; it is really part of who we are,' Fakhri said. 'For me, the sort of career advancement was very much evolutionary, organic, as I come from an advertising and marketing background.' Before entering the world of filmmaking and immersive storytelling, Hussein started out in Dublin, Ireland, pioneering digital advertising in a market far from his cultural roots. Hussein left the marketing agency life and now leads Katara's mission to produce bold, meaningful stories that resonate with a global audience with an unapologetically Arab perspective. 'I had my own advertising agency, and we had so much work that I had to found a film production company to be able to shoot our TV commercials,' Fakhri said. 'I would hire filmmakers, and we started doing short films, more brand films and documentaries, and that just sort of evolved. I just love the craft, although I'm not a filmmaker myself, but I just love the business of it.' Part of the work was instrumental in what eventually evolved into Katara Studios, founded by a group of talented filmmakers, he said. 'Watching them work and watching the kind of stuff that they do — just the love for it grew, to be honest.' The need for premium Arabic content that resonates with a global audience is the main driver for what Katara does creatively, he said. 'We have a huge audience. We have 500 million Arabic speakers. And we have very little premium content for them. There was a gap there that was spotted and an opportunity to be able to create premium content for this primary audience.' The demand for premium Arabic content and the interest in Arabic culture made for a great recipe for success, he said. 'We also have a lot of people around the world that are very interested in our culture, are very interested in our part of the world. And I don't think we've given them enough content to engage with us, and that's what we are trying to do, ultimately.' With a culture as rich and layered as the Arab world's, authenticity is not simply a goal — it is a responsibility for Katara Studios projects, he said, as they aim to bring stories to life with depth, accuracy, and heart, even when they are infused with other styles of filmmaking. Katara Studios is producing a fantasy Bedouin Western, and according to Fakhri, a balance for this genre experimentation and cultural authenticity is critical to telling a good story and being innovative without losing its Arab essence. Asked how Bedouin storytelling could be showcased with this approach to experimental filmmaking, Fakhri said: 'You know, I'm so glad you brought up that word because authenticity is the foundation for everything that we try to do. Genuinely, it has to be authentic. Because if it is not authentic — if you're trying to please an audience just by throwing stuff in there — it shows every time.' Authenticity required cultural integrity — such as maintaining dialect, accents, costumes and other small and important details in the presentation — and this would then reflect very positively to the film, he said. 'You get every element of it right; it really comes through in the final product. So, we're very careful to try to be as authentic as possible. And I think we've done that with this project,' Fakhri said.
Arab News
04-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Arab News
Artist Massoud Hayoun's London exhibition ‘Stateless' explores identity, exile
DUBAI: Los Angeles-based artist and author Massoud Hayoun has spent his career exploring identity, exile and resistance. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ His latest exhibition, 'Stateless,' running at London's Larkin Durey art gallery until June 27, is an exploration of control, culture and community. Raised by his grandparents, Hayoun paints their stories of exile, love and resilience in shades of blue, blending personal narratives with icons of Arab cinema and song to highlight shared cultural memories. His paintings are imbued with the legacy of his Egyptian and Tunisian Jewish heritage, but they also reach beyond his own family's history. His grandfather left Egypt, and his mother was born without citizenship — experiences that deeply inform his work. In 'Stateless,' he extends this exploration of displacement and belonging to other communities, particularly Palestinians and undocumented Americans, he told Arab News. 'In this show, you'll find people suspended between homeland and refuge, suspended in mid-air, suspended between life and death and living out a sort of existentialist heroism, suspended in undying romance,' he said. Hayoun's journey to painting was shaped by his background in journalism. A former journalist, he is also the author of 'When We Were Arabs,' a book on Arab identity that won an Arab American Book Award and was named a National Public Radio best book of the year in 2019. His transition from writing to painting was a natural evolution. 'I am a figurative painter — I paint people. My journalism was animated by a love of people and a desire to better understand, through interviews like this, people from walks of life drastically different to my own,' he said. His use of blue is deliberate. Initially reserved for people who had died, the color now engulfs all his subjects, evoking the transient nature of identity and existence. 'At first, I only painted my grandparents and other dead people in shades of blue, because to my mind, the glow of it seemed ghostly. I cast other people in different colors to signify other states of being. Eventually, after reflections on time, everyone became blue, even myself,' he said. Yet, at its core, Hayoun's work is about more than politics — it is about love. 'These works touch on sweeping political, philosophical and sociological issues, but they are fundamentally about love for people,' he said. 'They are meant in the way my grandparents expressed anxiety as a kind of love—fear for my well-being, fervent hopes that I live well and in dignity. These paintings are explosions of love,' he added.
