Noticias

Film Square Productions (“Ahmed & Ahmed”) and Egyptian producer Ahmed Badawy have boarded the upcoming Egyptian fantasy feature “The Masters of Magic and Beauty” as co-producers.

“The Masters of Magic and Beauty,” developed by Cairo-based Red Star Films, will be presented by Red Star Films’ Baho Bakhsh at the Amman International Film Festival and its accompanying Industry Days’ Pitching Platforms.

The film now gains the backing of one of the most commercially successful producers in the Arab world. Badawy has been lauded for helping to shape Egypt’s box-office landscape and has credits of box office hits such as “The Blue Elephant” (Parts I & II), “Kira We El Gin,” “Diamond Dust,” “Beit El Ruby,” “Welad Rizk” (II & III) and Bahebek.

“The Masters of Magic and Beauty” marks the debut feature of Jad Chahine, whose short “The Call of the Brook” was selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinef competition. Chahine also penned the script.

First images for Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah Saudi-shot action thriller have been unveiled as the production shoots outside the capital of Riyadh.

The $40M project from the Bad Boys for Life directorial duo is being hailed as a gamechanger for Saudi Arabia as its continues its drive to become the Middle East and North Africa’s biggest film and TV hub, following the lifting of its cinema ban in late 2017.

Egyptian stars Karim Abdel Aziz and Ahmed Ezz headline the thriller.

Karim Abdel Aziz (Left) and Ahmed Ezz (Right) on location at Alhisn Big Time Studios

The movie is being shot at Alhisn Big Time Studios in Riyadh, one of Mena region’s biggest film and television production facilities, with additional filming at Riyadh Boulevard. Riyadh will serve as a stand-in for multiple international cities,...

Egyptian drama The Last Miracle has been replaced as the opening-night film of El Gouna Film Festival amid reports it had not been cleared by local censors.

The film, directed by Abdelwahab Shawky, was due to screen this evening (October 24) at the festival in the Egyptian resort town on the shores of the Red Sea.

However, a statement released today by organisers said there has been “an adjustment to the original lineup” as The Last Miracle “unfortunately could not be screened”.

In its place, the festival is set to screen The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Croatia’s Nebojsa Slijepcevic,...

Egyptian drama The Last Miracle has been replaced as the opening-night film of El Gouna Film Festival amid reports it had not been cleared by local censors.

The film, directed by Abdelwahab Shawky, was due to screen this evening (October 24) at the festival in the Egyptian resort town on the shores of the Red Sea.

However, a statement released today by organisers said there has been “an adjustment to the original lineup” as The Last Miracle “unfortunately could not be screened”.

In its place, the festival is set to screen The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent by Croatia’s Nebojsa Slijepcevic,...

Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation recently scored at the local box office, is being feted with a career award by the El Gouna Film Festival.

The Egyptian fest, running Oct. 13-20 in the Red Sea resort roughly 250 miles south of Cairo, is also paying tribute to the Sudanese Film Group, a groundbreaking collective of filmmakers, and is planning an homage to late great British-French icon Jane Birkin.

Hamed (pictured above) broke out internationally in 2006 with his bold adaptation of Alaa Aswany’s bestselling novel “The Yacoubian Building” that became a game-changer in Egytian cinema due to the way it depicted homosexuality, Islamic fundamentalism and government corruption. After “Yacoubian” become a local hit and travelled widely Hamed scored again big time with “The Blue Elephant,” a thriller with supernatural elements and its sequel “The Blue Elephant 2” that more...

The El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) will honor Egyptian director Marwan Hamed with a life Career Achievement Award at its upcoming sixth edition, running from October 6 to 12.

It marks the first element of the program to be announced as the Egyptian Red Sea festival returns this year following a one year hiatus in 2022.

Hamed studied film at the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. His first short Li Li, adapted from a short story by Yusuf Idris, played at numerous festivals, winning the Audience Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Golden Award at the Carthage Film Festival.

He broke out with his 2006 first feature The Yacoubian Building, adapted from Alaa Al-Aswany’s best-selling novel, which captures Egyptian society in the 1990s and the consequences of its extremes of wealth and poverty.

Featuring an ensemble cast, including Egyptian icons Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif and Yousra alongside then...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Many titles disappear from Netflix without warning every day.

This explains why you might have noticed some films and TV shows have been removed while flicking through your watchlist.

In an attempt to avoid a surprise, here is a compilation of everything being removed in March, including several titles labelled as a Netflix Original.

The removals also includes Arrested Development, which has thrown the future availability of its final season into question. Find the full list below.

Nb: The Independent compiled this list with help from What’s on Netflix.

UK

Movies

1 March

The Associate

Balto

Barb Wire

Beethoven

Beethoven’s Big Break

The Blues Brothers

The Boy Next Door

Bridget Jones’s Baby

The Brothers Grimm

Clear and Present Danger

Confusion Na Wa

Connected

Cop Car

The Debt

Disconnect

Doomsday

Escape from Alcatraz

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

47 Ronin

Gold Statue

Halloween H20

Hell on the Border...

Warning: spoilers ahead for "Moon Knight."

Adventure, fantasy, horror, and romance: Composer Hesham Nazih infuses the score for "Moon Knight" with a wide range of emotions. It all comes to an end in episode 6, "Gods and Monsters," in which Nazih unleashes his biggest track yet (the propulsive "New Skillsets") and introduces Scarlet Scarab with sounds of pure triumph.

Nazih, who previously scored "The Blue Elephant, "Sons of Rizk," and the moving "Pharaohs' Golden Parade," wanted to create a more modern score for "Moon Knight," rather than relying on old tropes previously used to depict Egypt. The composer had a great deal of freedom to...

The post Moon Knight Composer Hesham Nazih On Scoring the Show's Most Beautiful Moments [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Three years after the first movie theater reopened in Saudi Arabia – following removal of a religion-related ban – the kingdom has become the top theatrical market in the Middle East and is turning into a major driver for Arabic film production.

“At the moment Saudi is on a different path from the rest of the world,” says David Hancock, an analyst at London-based Omdia, which sees this new market as having the potential to be ranked among the top 10-15 territories for box office worldwide by 2024.

By 2024 Omdia estimates there will be 1,400 screens in Saudi Arabia, up from a current count of less than 300 screens in 2020 with more than 600 screens expected in 2021. In 2020 Saudi box office was up 3% to $115 million, bucking the downward trend in the rest of the world.

But besides growing box office and screen count, just like in other parts of the world such as China where there is moviegoing growth,...

France fetes Arab cinema figures at a special ceremony in Cairo.

Egyptian producer and Cairo International Film Festival director Mohamed Hefzy has been feted with France’s prestigious Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier des Arts et Lettres) honour.

Created in 1957, the order celebrates people who have made a significant contribution to the arts and literature. It has three grades commander, officer and knight.

Other cinema figures to have received the honour in the past include Italian distributor Valerio De Paolis and Sony Pictures Classics co-founders Michael Barker and Tom Bernard.

Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Hefzy...

Egyptian filmmaker Marwan Hamed, the director of “The Yacoubian Building,” “The Blue Elephant” and “The Blue Elephant 2,” which last year became the highest-grossing Egyptian film in history, is shooting “Kira and El Gen,” based on Ahmed Mourad’s book “1919,” about Egyptian resistance to British occupation. He spoke to Variety about the project at the Cairo Film Festival.

Produced by Ahmed Badawy, managing director of Tamer Morsi’s Synergy Films, the budget is north of $10 million, making it the most expensive film in Egyptian cinema history. The film stars some of the biggest names in Arab cinema, including Karim Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Ezz, Hind Sabri and Ahmad Malek. British actor Sam Hazeldine also appears.

Hamed says that the opening of cinemas in Saudi Arabia with its sizeable box-office potential has created a landscape where Arab financiers can plan for better returns on films. “What actually encouraged such an investment...

16 regional and international features are competing for the festival’s $50,000 Golden Star award.

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival kicked off its fourth edition against the Covid-19 odds over the weekend, feting French actor Gérard Depardieu and UK director Peter Webber with its special Golden Star Career Achievement Award at the opening ceremony.

Taking to the stage, Depardieu praised the festival for pulling off such a large-scale event and professed his admiration for late Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine.

A host of film and TV stars from Egypt as well as a smattering of international guests walked the red carpet at the glitzy opening event,...

Nelly Karim and Dhafer L’Abidine star in groundbreaking genre picture by Rami Yasin.

Groundbreaking Arabic-language vampire feature Bloodline has secured a Halloween launch on Shahid VIP, the rising Mena region streaming platform which has seen subscriber numbers surge since a revamp by parent company Mbc Group earlier this year.

The feature, which will launch on Shahid on October 30, brings together some of the Arab world’s hottest directing, acting and producing talent.

It marks the feature debut of respected UAE-based producer and director Rami Yasin, whose producing credits include Sea Shadow, Rattle The Cage and The Worthy. His short film...

A psychiatrist for the criminally insane, Dr. Yehia Rashed (Karim Abdel Aziz), is called out of early retirement, where he vanished after his exertions in the original The Blue Elephant (2014), to deal with a young murderess who appears to have supernatural powers. In Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers (El Feel-el Azra’a 2), director Marwan Hamed (who made his name internationally with his acclaimed first film The Yacoubian Building) turns a basically schlocky horror tale into a wild fantasy ride that benefits from more CGI than Egyptian movies have ever seen and a mesmerizing star turn by Hend Sabry as ...

A psychiatrist for the criminally insane, Dr. Yehia Rashed (Karim Abdel Aziz), is called out of early retirement, where he vanished after his exertions in the original The Blue Elephant (2014), to deal with a young murderess who appears to have supernatural powers. In Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers (El Feel-el Azra’a 2), director Marwan Hamed (who made his name internationally with his acclaimed first film The Yacoubian Building) turns a basically schlocky horror tale into a wild fantasy ride that benefits from more CGI than Egyptian movies have ever seen and a mesmerizing star turn by Hend Sabry as ...

‘You Will Die at Twenty’, ‘Talking About Trees’ and ‘Exam’ Win Golden Stars, and ‘Cinema for Humanity’ Award Goes to Ladj Ly’s Les MisérablesEl Gouna Film Festival concluded its third edition with a closing ceremony where the award-winning films were announced, with total award value at Us$224,000.

The winners were as follows.

Watch the Awards on Euronews here.

Feature Narrative Competition

El Gouna Golden Star for Narrative Film: You Will Die at Twenty by Amjad Abu Alala. See my review.

El Gouna Silver Star for Narrative Film: Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa

El Gouna Bronze Star for Narrative Film: Adam by Maryam Touzani. See my review.

El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Narrative Film: Papicha by Mounia Meddour

El Gouna Star for the Best Actor: Bartosz Bielenia, Corpus Christi

El Gouna Star for the Best Actress: Hend Sabry, Noura’s Dream

The gritty, Tunisian film tells the story...

Seven of the world’s foremost festivals dedicated to, or with strong traditions of highlighting genre cinema, have banded together to form the Fantastic 7, an initiative which sees each bring one project to be pitched at the Cannes Film Market.

The seven festivals include: Sitges Intl. Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia – which initiated the idea along with the Cannes Market; Bucheon Intl. Fantastic Film Festival, Cairo Intl. Film Festival, Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival (Ficg), International Film Festival & Awards – Macao; South by Southwest and the Toronto Intl. Film Festival (Tiff).

Cannes Film Market executive director Jérôme Paillard, Sitges deputy general manager Mónica Garcia Massagué, and Ventana Sur and Blood Window founder Bernardo Bergeret initialized and head the program.

In addition to the project pitches, Spanish director J.A. Bayona will godfather the event. Bayona has a memorable relationship with the Cannes Festival. In 2007 he premiered his now classic debut feature “The Orphanage” at Critics’ Week.

The Cairo Film Festival, for its 40th edition, is reinventing itself.

With Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy at the helm who, at 43, is its youngest president, the oldest fest in the Arab and African worlds is undergoing a radical revamp in a major effort to get its mojo back after a decade of decline due to the country’s post-revolution turbulence.

Hefzy, who is known internationally for the steady stream of edgy top notch titles birthed by his Film Clinic shingle — most recently Cannes standout “Yomeddine,” which is Egypt’s current candidate for the foreign-language Oscar — is the first Cairo fest chief chosen from within the country’s film industry ranks. Since being appointed in March he has been working incessantly in tandem with respected critic and academic Youssef Sherif Rizkalla, who remains the fest’s artistic director.

Eight months later, the signs of renewal are visible. Starting from a reconfiguration...

One of the most prominent names in Egyptian cinema, Marwan Hamed rose to fame thanks to his acclaimed directorial debut, <em>The Yacoubian Building.</em> Based on the much-loved novel by Alaa Al Aswany about the colorful residents of a Cairo apartment block, the 2006 drama is still considered the Egyptian film with the highest budget ever, but would also become one of the country's most successful productions. 

Eight years later, Hamed turned his attention to another best-selling novel, Ahmed Mourad's thriller <em>The Blue Elephant. </em>The film became another local blockbuster and dominated the 2014 edition ...

One of the most prominent names in Egyptian cinema, Marwan Hamed rose to fame thanks to his acclaimed directorial debut, The Yacoubian Building. Based on the much-loved novel by Alaa Al Aswany about the colorful residents of a Cairo apartment block, the 2006 drama is still considered the Egyptian film with the highest budget ever, but would also become one of the country's most successful productions. 

Eight years later, Hamed turned his attention to another best-selling novel, Ahmed Mourad's thriller The Blue Elephant. The film became another local blockbuster and dominated the 2014 edition of the Egyptian Film Association Festival, with nine wins (including...

In a region where the media biz is often more noted for being polarized, the atrocious actions that have brought Isis global attention have unified the vast majority of decent moral Arabs across sectarian and political divides against the exceptionally brutal terror group.

President Obama and dozens of countries are rushing an emergency plan to eradicate Isis on the ground, and the world is getting to know this organization because of the horrific beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and last night’s atrocity against married British aid worker and father of two David Cawthorne Haines. The Arab world, however, was already all too aware of the group’s murderous tactics, as thousands of Arab civilians have been killed in recent months in Syria and Iraq.

Isis has created an unprecedented amount of upheaval that has manifested itself in different ways. Journalists who cover the region have...