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The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 49 projects across all formats that will be showcased at the 11th edition of its Qumra development and networking event in April.

They include Quarter to Thursday from Algerian director Sofia Djama, about three friends on a mission to bury a dachshund in a military base, which is in development. Djama’s last feature The Blessed won a slew of awards in Venice Horizons in 2017, and delivered a breakout best actress role for rising French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri.

The selection also features Syrian director Anas Khalaf’s Love 45 about an overweight Lebanese man who is caught in a destructive spiral, which is in production. Khalaf’s previous credits include the Syria, Bashar al-Assad-era set thriller The Translator.

The picture lock line-up includes Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s Marie & Jolie about three Ivorian women from different generations making a life in in the...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Inshallah a Boy, the directorial debut of Amjad Al Rasheed which world premiered during the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week and is set to have its North American debut at TIFF next month.

Inshallah a Boy is being considered for Jordan’s Official Selection for Best International Feature Film and Greenwich will release the film in January.

The Imaginarium Films drama was co-written by Al Rasheed, Delphine Agut, and Rula Nasser. In the movie, after the sudden death of her husband, a widow fights for her inheritance to save her daughter and home. Inshallah a Boy examines a society where women are pressured to relinquish their property rights to male relatives and having a son would change everything.

“I’m beyond excited to collaborate with Greenwich on the upcoming theatrical release of my film,” said director Amjad al Rasheed.

After a great success of their short film “Mare Nostrum” (2016) which bagged 36 awards internationally, Syrian directors Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf unite again, this time for their long-feature debut “The Translator” which celebrates its world premiere in the First Feature Competition of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights).

“The Translator” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.

The...

Launch Releasing, the independent film distribution and production company, has announced its 2023 development slate following last year’s releases, Lionsgate’s “The Black String,” starring Frankie Muniz, and “The Translator,” which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Highlights include the action-comedy “Andy Somebody” and two sequels to the animated franchise “Riki Rhino,” which the company will executive produce.

“At Launch Releasing, our passion and mandate is really simple – we want to find movies that we love and share them with audiences. When we saw ‘Andy Somebody,’ we instantly fell in love with its underdog story and its quirky comedic characters and we’re looking forward to audiences joining us on this really fun ride,” stated Sheldon Brigman, the company’s CEO. “Whether it’s genre titles such as ‘Mr. Sleep’ or captivating human interest films such as ‘The Translator’ where complex characters make life and death decisions in war torn Syria,...

Josh Charles, Dali Benssalah, and Yumna Marwan have been cast in the upcoming FX limited series “The Veil,” Varety has learned exclusively.

The series, which will air exclusively on Hulu, was originally picked up to series in August 2022 with Elisabeth Moss in the lead role.

Per the official logline, the series “explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Asia to Europe. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it.”

Exact character details are being kept under wraps, but Charles will star as Max, Benssalah as Malik, and Marwan as Adilah.

Charles most recently starred in the critically-acclaimed HBO series “We Own This City” from David Simon and George Pelecanos. His other recent credits include “Away” at Netflix and “In Treatment” at HBO. He is perhaps best known for his roles in “The Good Wife,...

The eighth edition of the annual talent incubator takes place online from March 18-23.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 45 projects that will participate in the eighth edition of its annual talent incubator Qumra, taking place online March 18-23.

The event is running as a virtual edition for the third year due to ongoing health concerns and travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The selection spans 28 features, 11 shorts and 6 series in different stages of development and production from 21 territories.

Features in development include Oscar-nominated Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s debut feature The Teacher and Syrian director Anas Khalaf...

The eighth edition of the annual talent incubator takes place online from March 18-23.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 48 projects that will participate in the eighth edition of its annual talent incubator Qumra, taking place online March 18-23.

The event is running as a virtual edition for the third year due to ongoing health concerns and travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The selection spans 28 features, 11 shorts and 6 series in different stages of development and production from 21 territories.

Features in development include Oscar-nominated Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s debut feature The Teacher and Syrian director Anas Khalaf...

Syrian filmmaker Anas Khalaf, French-Moroccan filmmaker Sofia Alaoui and Egypt’s Ahmed Fawzi Saleh have also received backing.

Algerian-French filmmaker Mounia Meddour’s third feature Délit de Solidarité is among 35 projects to have secured Doha Film Institute (Dfi) funding as part of its autumn 2021 grants round.

The drama, which is in development, revolves around a young woman living at a key crossing point for migrants on the Italian-French border. Its French title translates as “a crime of solidarity”.

The Dfi previously supported Meddour’s debut feature Papicha which premiered to critical acclaim in Cannes Un Certain Regard. The filmmaker is...

Watching a brazen kidnapping stirs a man to immediate action. Directed by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khala, The Translator tells the story of Sami (Ziad Bakri), who fled war-torn Syria and has established a new life as a political exile in Australia. Upon learning that his brother has been kidnapped back in Syria by the merciless Assad regime, he must decide what to do. The clip gets right to the point, illustrating the perilous dilemma. It's one thing to be told about such an event, after all, but quite another to see it actually happening. Sami weighs the advice that he is given in the clip, and then swifts decides upon his own course of action. The Translator will be available to watch via all...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"So, Sami, where should I take you?" "Home." Launch Releasing has unveiled the new official US trailer for The Translator, a Syrian-French-Swiss-Belgian-Qatari co-production that first premiered at film festivals last year. It's opening in the US on VOD starting next February. A riveting thriller about an Arabic-English translator for the 2000 Olympics in Australia, who's forced into exile after a fateful mistranslation. He must return to Syria years later after his activist brother goes missing during the Arab Spring. Ziad Bakri stars as Sami, who returns to Syria more than a decade after going into political exile in Australia, to try and find and save his brother at the start of the Syrian revolution. The cast also includes Yumna Marwan, David Field, Sawsan Arsheed, Miranda Tapsell, Fares Helou, and Reem Ali. Whoa this looks intense. And not at all what I was expecting from that intro. A serious thriller with a strong emotional core.

Born in 1984 in Ankara, Emre has been committed to storytelling and visual arts since childhood. After a BA in Law and a yearlong experience as a legal intern, he quits. In 2012, he was accepted to Ma Filmmaking department at the London Film School. After directing two narrative short films and practiced photography, he graduated in 2014 with his thesis film “The Translator” which was screened in more than 200 film festivals worldwide such as Sarajevo, Premier Plans, Palm Springs, Montreal, won 16 awards and was nominated for the Best Short Film for the 28th European Film Awards. He is an alumnus of Sarajevo Talents and a member of Efa.

On the occasion of “Anatolian Leopard” screening at Thessaloniki Film Festival, we speak with him about broken bulbs, the timeline of the film, Fikret and the political metaphors presented in the story, the zoo, and many other topics.

First question, because it really annoyed me during the film,...

Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf’s suspenseful and compassionate story of a family caught in protesting the Syrian regime resonates today.

Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...

China’s Huace Pictures this week unveiled its upcoming film lineup, which includes a new project from young arthouse filmmaker Bi Gan (“Kaili Blues”) and sequels to its Chinese New Year hit “A Writer’s Odyssey.”

Founded in 2014, Huace Pictures is the newer outgrowth of Shenzhen-listed, Hangzhou-headquartered Zhejiang Huace Film and TV, founded in 2005. The latter has historically been a strong player in China’s TV drama production, but the group hopes to boost its footprint in film.

To that end, it unveiled on Tuesday a new logo for Huace Pictures, and announced the goal of producing 30 films over the next three years that can collectively bring in $1.5 billion (RMB10 billion) or more at the box office. It also released a list of 16 upcoming films that it plans to produce or distribute this year.

Fu Binxing, Huace Pictures chairman and VP of Huace Film and TV Group, said the company seeks...

Arab Stars of Tomorrow spotlights six talents from the Middle East and North Africa who are making their mark on the global stage.

In our fourth edition of Arab Stars of Tomorrow, Screen International celebrates six of the most exciting talents to emerge this year from the Middle East and North Africa. Egyptian director Sameh Alaa, Palestinian-Jordanian actress Tara Abboud, Saudi director Hana Al Omair, Lebanese actress Stephanie Atala, Moroccan actor Brice Bexter El Glaoui and Algerian actor Mehdi Ramdani are the breakout names of 2020.

Click on the links below to read the profiles of this year’s stars, and...

After a great success of their short film “Mare Nostrum” (2016) which bagged 36 awards internationally, Syrian directors Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf unite again, this time for their long-feature debut “The Translator” which celebrates its world premiere in the First Feature Competition of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights).

The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.

The story is set in March of 2011, at the beginning of the revolution in...

Leading Arab producer Ossama Bawardi is in development with Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s fourth film, a period drama set in Palestine, with European and Arab characters, in what he describes as “a very competitive Arab market” for Arab films. Speaking to Variety at the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt, Bawardi spoke about his upcoming slate.

Jacir, who served on the Berlinale’s International Jury this year, has just finished the script for her next project. The plan is for it to qualify under the British-Palestinian co-production agreement. “We have begun reaching out to international partners, to those who want to be part of Annemarie’s new film, which she calls the project of her life,” Bawardi said.

Even with the global pandemic, and at times because of it, it’s been a busy year for Bawardi and Philistine Films, the company he runs alongside Jacir. The husband-and-wife team...

Three out of competition titles also added to programme.

Estonian film festival Tallinn Black Nights has selected 15 titles for the First Feature Competition at its hybrid 24th edition which runs November 13-29.

The festival has also added three out of competition debut films to the programme; the 18 titles in total include 10 world premieres, seven international, and one European.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

World premieres include The Translator, from Syrian filmmakers Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf. Set during the 2011 Syrian revolution, it follows a political refugee living in Australia who makes the journey back to his native country,...

Three out of competition titles also added to programme.

Estonian film festival Tallinn Black Nights has selected 15 titles for the First Feature Competition at its hybrid 24th edition which runs November 13-29.

The festival has also added three out of competition debut films to the programme; the 18 titles in total include 10 world premieres, seven international, and one European.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

World premieres include The Translator, from Syrian filmmakers Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf. Set during the 2011 Syrian revolution, it follows a political refugee living in Australia who makes the journey back to his native country,...