Notizie

Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center have unveiled the lineup for the 28th edition of Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, an annual celebration of contemporary French filmmaking. The event will take place March 2–12.

It kicks off with a screening of Alice Winocour’s “Revoir Paris,” which stars Virginie Efira as a translator named Mia, who survived a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant and is unable to resume life as usual. In an effort to regain a sense of normalcy, Mia returns repeatedly to the site of the shooting, forming bonds with her fellow survivors. Efira is best known for her star turn in Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta.”

“It is a such a pleasure to open this year’s edition with the French critical and box-office hit ‘Revoir Paris’ in the presence of director Alice Winocour and actress Virginie Efira, who just received our French Cinema Award in Paris,” said Daniela Elstner,...

Cairo-based film marketing and distribution outfit Mad Solutions has acquired rights for Arab territories to three films that celebrated their premieres this year at the Cannes and Venice film festivals.

The deals include Fyzal Boulifa’s “The Damned Don’t Cry,” which bowed in the Venice Days sidebar at the Italian fest and will have its Middle East and North Africa premiere at Marrakech before traveling to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival. Also acquired was Rachid Hami’s “For My Country,” a Venice Horizons selection that will have its regional premiere at the Cairo Film Festival.

The company also picked up the rights to Clément Cogitore’s “Sons of Ramses,” which had its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week strand.

“We are delighted to have acquired the distribution rights to three artistically distinguished films in 2022, which is considered the climax of our efforts in...

Algerian filmmakers have stepped up a campaign calling for their government to unlock promised state funds for cinema, warning that Algeria’s film industry is on its last legs following a near-year-long funding freeze.

Following on from a first open letter in June, the Collective of Algerian Cineastes has published a new letter addressed to Minister of Culture Soraya Mouloudji, re-demanding clarification on the government’s funding plans for cinema.

Algeria’s long-running Fdatic film fund was cancelled in December 2021 by Mouloudji’s predecessor Wafa Chaâlal.

The minister promised a replacement fund would soon be announced but nine months later no new scheme has been unveiled and successor Mouloudji has been equally unforthcoming.

A number of completed features approved for funding under Fdatic have yet to receive their monies, while a handful of...

“Candy is better in France,” says a small boy to his brother in a flashback scene in For My Country (Pour La France), Rachid Hami’s personal drama premiering in Horizons at the Venice Film Festival. The boy’s Algerian family is considering moving to France, and his simplistic response sums up his innocent, optimistic view of his new home. But — as we have already discovered — France will bring tragedy to the family in this moving account based on Hami’s memories of his late younger brother.

As a young adult, Aïssa (Shaïn Boumedine) has enlisted in the prestigious military academy of Saint-Cyr, dreaming of serving the country he has become devoted to: France. But Aïssa dies during a fresher hazing initiation that takes place in freezing water.

His elder brother Ismaël (Karim Leklou) tries to comfort their distraught mother Nadia (Lubna Azabal) and to help her navigate the changing attitudes of officials,...

MK2 Films has unveiled a clip of Rachid Hami’s “For My Country,” a politically minded family drama which will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section.

A personal movie, “For My Country” is based on the life of Hami, whose brother tragically died in a French military school during a hazing rite.

Produced by Mizar Films, the searing drama tells the story of Aissa, a brilliant young officer of Algerian origin who dies during a fresher initiation ritual at the prestigious French military academy of Saint-Cyr. Refusing to take responsibility for his death, the French army insists to have Aissa buried in the Muslim plot of a suburban cemetery instead of the military one. Appalled by the obvious discrimination, Aissa’s older brother, Ismael, brings the family together to reclaim justice for Aissa.

Hami wrote in his director’s statement that he grew up feeling...