Cultural and artistic creativity cannot be separated from the basic needs of the Arab citizen. There is a close link between the need for food and clothing as natural components of life on the planet and between thought, awareness and culture as important cognitive components of the collective mind. Perceptions of tangible and visual beauty, in order to automatically activate relations on the ground, so that the targeted Arab unity is achieved and the common complementary elements between individuals and groups are confirmed on one level.
Therefore, the artistic and cultural events that are celebrated throughout the year, and in which cinema aspires to play a major role, have an important advantage in searching for life and social commonalities that indicate the depth of Arab-Arab relations rooted between brothers, in addition to being entertainment activities that discharge negative charges in relation to The effects of occasional disagreements sometimes resulting from misunderstanding that may occur over time periods due to the existence of differences in viewpoints that quickly disappear with the disappearance of the reasons.
Hence the interest in holding festivals and organizing Arab and non-Arab events to ensure that differences are settled first-hand at the joint dialogue table to discuss outstanding issues raised by films within their topics in various sessions, as it is among the messages that any festival cares to deliver in terms of informing and informing of developments so that they do not become there. Forgotten or intractable problems that disturb relations or blur the vision for the future perspective of new generations of creative Arab youth who are able to overcome obstacles by simply seizing the creative idea that is consistent with the dreams and aspirations they aspire to.
Cairo International Film Festival
The Cairo International Film Festival concluded its forty-fourth session last month, to be the last celebration of Egyptian and Arab cinema in 2022. The curtain has fallen on the sorrows of the past year, to renew hope in drawing a new map for a future session that is more appropriate to the needs of creators and the public and has the ability to correct the mistakes that occurred during missed session.
Despite the small flaws that represented slight defects in the organizational form, the overall output of the events was largely acceptable, especially since the festival absorbed an abundant number of works and gave the opportunity for distinguished films to win awards, such as the movie “19 B”, which won the best award. An Arab film with a value of ten thousand dollars. The film “Blessing of the Bride” by the Lebanese director Bassem Breish received a special mention as a high artistic value from the jury, and the Tunisian film by director Yassine Redissi won the Arab Cinema Horizons Award as the best film in the competition.
In this way, the Cairo Festival brought together Egyptian excellence and Arab excellence in one context, recognizing the importance of the Egyptian-Arab national integration in the crucible of cinematic creativity once morest the background of the strong and solid relations between Egypt and its sister countries from the Arab countries.
Alexandria Film Festival
On the fifth of last October, the 38th session of the Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Cinema was launched, with a dedication to the artist Mahmoud Hamida. The sister country of Tunisia was chosen as the festival’s guest of honor to celebrate the Egyptian-Tunisian Year of Culture. In the same context, the festival was keen to honor the French star Marianne Bourgeau at a ceremony The opening is among the international personalities to give the cinematic event its international and global dimension and to demonstrate the interest in the stars of the cinema of the Mediterranean countries in line with the direction of the festival and its important cultural mission. Break the language barrier and get out of isolation.
Red Sea Festival
During the period from December 1 to December 10 of the same month, the second session of the Red Sea International Film Festival was held in the historic city of Jeddah under the slogan “Cinema is Life” in the presence of a group of major Arab and international movie stars. A number of films from different countries were shown. The world, however, the most important event was the opening of a global market for Arab and Saudi film, with keenness to discover new creative talents among Saudi and Arab youth interested in cinema and wishing to study it and develop their talents in the fields of acting, directing, photography and other creative cinematic disciplines.
In order to encourage and ensure the success of the second film session of the newborn festival, its management worked to allocate several valuable prizes for the winning films. The value of the first prize for the best film amounted to approximately $100,000, in addition to other prizes of varying value.
Return Festival for Palestinian Cinema
Among the important international events for Palestinian cinema, the Al-Awda International Film Festival was held for a week, regarding four months before the end of 2022, under the slogan of waiting for the return to return. Indeed, quite a few Arab and foreign stars sent their films to the festival management, and they were contacted through modern and advanced means of communication at the opening ceremony that was held in Gaza City.
Among the Egyptian stars who visited Palestinian cities during the recent past, in a unique and daring precedent, was the Egyptian artist Ahmed Badir, who was honored by the festival by showing his film “A Date of Life” and awarded him the Grand Prize in the fifth session, in partnership with the Palestine Technical College, which contributed to the establishment of the festival and supported it. Bringing the number of participating films to 177 films from 42 countries worldwide.
Carthage Film Festival
Tunisia also celebrated the 33rd session of the Carthage Film Festival in a special creative atmosphere that contributed to the richness of the cinematic movement in the countries of North Africa, the Arab world and Latin America. The closing ceremony was performed by the Egyptian singer Sherine Abdel Wahab in a delightful artistic atmosphere.
The history of the Carthage Film Festival dates back to 1966, when it was established on the initiative of Taher Sharia. The task of supervising it was entrusted to a specialized committee headed by the Minister of Culture. The festival is held annually between October and November and is the oldest film festival in southern Tunisia.
The aforementioned festival organizes several film competitions under different titles, including the Long Tapes Competition and the Small Tapes Competition.
Jordan Festival
On the second of last October, the Jordan Film Festival concluded its tenth session, where the Moroccan film “Madad Akher” won three awards at the festival’s awards ceremony, for the best integrated work, best screenplay, best directing and best acting. The last award went to the Jordanian actor Muhammad Al-Ibrahimi for a role in The movie “The Burial”.
It is worth noting that director Khairy Bishara was the head of the festival’s jury, consisting of Dr. Ali Al-Rabeeat and Dr. Amer Gharaibeh from Jordan. The awards were distributed at the Royal Cultural Center in Amman, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Culture, Hazzaa Al-Barari, the Jordanian Artists Syndicate, Muhammad Al-Abbadi, and the festival’s director, Abdul Karim Al-Jarrah.
Meta Film Festival
In a new and rapid development of the cinematic movement in Dubai in the UAE, the first session of the Metta International Film Festival was launched during the year 2022, with the participation of 70 films from 25 countries. Short, long and documentary works.
For its part, the UAE itself participated as an organizer with a group of short feature films, including “Deadline”, “Everyone’s Children”, “IDI”, “Dawn of the Great Steppe”, “The Last Station”, “The Turtle and the Snail” and “The Day of the Apple”. Along with a number of other Egyptian, Iranian, Swedish, Korean and Jordanian short films.
During its activities, the festival hosted a number of international and regional cinema celebrities, including Chris Mejia, Nayla Al Khaja, Emirati director Maria Bello, Casey, Pegah Ahengrani, Neslihan Yeldan and others.
According to the statements of the festival director, Leila Masinay, that the first session of the new film festival is considered an extension of the activities of the Meta Forum, which is the name that refers to the festival itself.
With this creative artistic formation, the map of Arab film festivals was drawn throughout the year, and it had a great positive impact in defining the frameworks for cultural interaction in the appropriate manner, according to the ambitious plans of the concerned and targeted messages.
