News

Paris-based Moon a Deal Films has boarded Talal Selhami’s upcoming feature, “The Shelter,” set to pitch at this year’s Atlas Workshops, part of the Marrakech Intl. Film Festival.

Moon a Deal will be the film’s development co-producer, joining Moroccan lead producer La Prod. Both companies were founded and are led by Moroccan indie superproducer Lamia Chraibi, who will produce alongside La Prod’s Sophia Menni.

The feature project will tell the story of Leila, an exiled Syrian refugee war survivor who must care for Georges, a former diplomat nearing the end of his life. Being brought so close to the prospect of death awakens ghosts from Leila’s past that the woman must address.

“The Shelter” has already received development backing from the Red Sea Fund and writing support from Morrocan film agency, the Centre Cinématographique Marocain, and will be hoping to score one of the cash...

The dark comedy won two 10,000 prizes.

Amjad Al Rasheed’s Inshallah A Boy picked up The Cell award for a digital camera package and the Rise Studios award, both worth 10,000, at the Cairo Film Connection, the co-financing platform of the Cairo International Film Festival.

There were 20 prizes given out across 15 projects, either in development or post-production, totalling 225,000 altogether.

Inshallah A Boy is the feature debut from former Screen Arab Star of Tomorrow Al Rasheed and follows a grieving widow at risk of losing her house due to inheritance laws. A co-production between Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the dark comedy...

The Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production market spread the love at an award ceremony Sunday night, with 15 projects claiming 20 prizes in the Egyptian capital valued at some 225,000.

Among the standouts were Suzannah Mirghani’s “Cotton Queen” and “Lamp in the Dark,” from Sudanese filmmaker Mahdi El-Tayeb, which both took home awards from marketing and distribution outfit Mad Solutions for distribution in the Arab world with a 50,000 minimum guarantee.

Set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, “Cotton Queen” — which won the ArteKino Award at the Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier this year — follows a teenage girl as she begins to question cultural expectations and the collapsing cotton industry, under threat from both insect and human pests. “Lamp in the Dark” turns on a generational clash in a Sudanese village after the arrival of a mobile cinema.

No film won more than two prizes, with Amjad Al Rasheed...

Marrakech – One of Morocco’s highest-profile female producers has got her hands full with a slew of new projects. Lamia Chraibi of the Casablanca-based production shingle Laprod has revealed a full new production slate to Variety that she is working on beyond her current focus, the production “Thank You Satan” directed by Morocco’s Hicham Lasri (“Cruelty Free”).

Previously called “Happy Lovers,” the dark comedy is about a penniless novelist who plans to assassinate a famous author that has been issued a fatwa. He wants to use the money to buy his wife and new children a place in the sun.

“It will be a first of its kind and I cannot wait for this movie to be made,” she tells Variety.

Other projects in the works include drama/horror “Le Refuge” by Talal Selhami (“Achora”). The director described the film as Polanski-esque in style. The story unfolds inside an apartment with very few characters.

Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare tale All Is True has been selected to open the Palm Springs Film Festival, which Friday unveiled its full lineup of films for the 30th edition that runs January 3-14. The fest also said that Bruce Bereford’s Ladies in Black will be the closing-night film, with the director and cast members expected to be in attendance.

In all, the fest will screen 223 films from 78 countries, and as usual will screen a slew of Oscar Foreign Language Film entries, this year numbering 43 of the 87 official submissions. Also on the docket: a 30-film retrospective of past fest selections, dubbed the Palm Springs Canon; special focuses on cinema from France, India and Mexico, and Jewish and queer cinema; and the new Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award, named for actor and magician Ricky Jay who died last month.

In addition to the film lineup, the opening awards gala...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced its 2019 lineup, and it’s prodigious: 223 films from 78 countries, four of them world premieres. Though well known for celebrating future Oscar nominees (and winners) each year, the festival also boasts a deceptively robust world-cinema slate; among the upcoming offerings are Jia Zhangke’s “Ash Is Purest White,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” and Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Asako I & II,” to name just a few.

A number of post-screening Q&As will also be held, including with “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth and “Support the Girls” star Regina Hall, in addition to a new section celebrating the best films to screen at Psiff throughout its first three decades.

World premieres:

Buck Run (USA), Director Nick Frangione

Carlos Almaraz Playing With Fire (USA), Directors Elsa Flores Almaraz, Richard Montoya (Schlesinger Documentary Competition)

The Last Color...

Mohcine Besri: 'I'm just trying to be personal in my films to make them as universal as possible' Moroccan director Mohcine Besri says it's personal when it comes to his latest film Urgent (Une Urgence Oridnaire). The film, which scrutinises the Moroccan healthcare system through the story of a family trying to get help for their young son Ayoub (Youssef Alaoui who has a head injury and a man who has attempted suicide (Ayoub Layoussifi), was partially inspired by the experience of Besri's own mother.

Speaking to me at the 17th Marrakech Film Festival, where the film screened in competition, the 47-year-old, who now lives in Switzerland, says: Charlie Chaplin used to say: 'As long as it's personal, it's universal.' So I'm just trying to be personal in my films to make them as universal as possible."

He adds: "I quit Morocco when I was 23 years old and I live in Geneva,...

The 17th Marrakech International Film Festival (Nov 30 – Dec 08) has set a jury comprising Suspiria star Dakota Johnson, Indian actress Ileana D’Cruz (Barfi!), Lebanese filmmaker and visual artist Joana Hadjithomas (I Want To See), Brit director Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin), Moroccan director Tala Hadid (House In The Fields), French director Laurent Cantet (The Class), German actor Daniel Brühl (Rush) and Mexican director Michel Franco (April’s Daughter). As previously revealed, director James Gray will serve as jury president.

A total of 80 films will unspool at the festival, with Julian Schnabel’s Van Gogh biopic At Eternity’s Gate among gala screenings and also the festival’s opener. Other galas include Roma, Green Book and Capernaum while special screenings include Wildlife, Her Smell and Birds Of Passage. The official competition, galas and special screenings are listed below.

The festival will also feature tributes to Robert DeNiro, Robin Wright,...

The 12th Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival, New Delhi (27 July to 5 August 2012) will open with Japanese director Keiichi Sato’s “Asura” and close with Rituparno Ghosh’s “Chitragandha”.

Festival announced its competition lineup and highlights on Wednesday.

According to the official press release the festival will present 15 World premieres, 8 International premieres, 104 Indian premieres and 13 Asian premieres from China, Estonia, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Morocco and Algeria among other Asian and Arab countries.

Films In Competition

Asian & Arab

1. Death For Sale (Mort à Vendre)/Faouzi Bensaidi, Morocco, France, Belgium, United Arab Emirates

2011/India Premiere

2. Ex Press (Ex Press)/Jet Leyco, Philippines 2011/India Premiere

3. Headshot (Fon Tok Kuen Fah)/Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand 2011/India Premiere

4. Highway (Autobahn)/Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal, USA 2011/Asia Premiere

5. Inside (Yeralti)/Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkey 2012/Asia Premiere

6. Mekong Hotel/Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, UK 2012/India Premiere

7. Milocrorze: A Love Story (Mirokurôze)/Yoshimasa Ishibashi, Japan 2011/India...