Cultural and artistic creativity cannot be separated from the primary 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 community Perceptions of tangible and visual beauty, in order to automatically activate relations on the ground, so that the targeted Arab unity is realized and the common elements of complementarity between individuals and groups are confirmed on a level.
Therefore, artistic and cultural events that are celebrated throughout the year, and in which cinema aspires to play a leading role, have an important advantage in the search for commonalities of life and society that indicate the depth of Arab- Arab relations. Arab roots rooted between siblings, in addition to being entertainment activities that discharge negative burdens in relation to the effects of occasional disagreements sometimes resulting from misunderstandings that can occur over time due to the existence of differences of viewpoints that quickly disappear with the lack of reasons.
Hence the interest in holding Arab and non-Arab festivals and events to have differences resolved first hand at the joint dialogue table to discuss the outstanding issues raised by the films in their topics in the various sessions, as is between the messages that each festival takes care to provide in terms of information and information of developments so that they do not become there forgotten or intractable issues that disturb relationships or blur the vision for the future perspective of the new generations of creative young Arabs who are able to overcome obstacles simply by grasping the creative idea consistent with the dreams and aspirations to which they aspire.
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 falls on the woes of the past year, to renew hope in drawing a new map for a future session more appropriate to the needs of the creators and the audience and has the ability to correct errors that occurred during the lost session.
Despite the small flaws which represented slight flaws in the organizational form, the overall rendering of the events was largely acceptable, especially as the festival absorbed an abundant number of works and gave the opportunity for illustrious films to win prizes, such as the film “19 B”, which won the best prize. An Arab film worth ten thousand dollars. The film “Blessing of the Bride” by Lebanese director Bassem Breish received a special mention from the jury for high artistic value, and the Tunisian director Yassine Redissi’s film won the Arab Cinema Horizons Award for best film in competition.
In this way, the Cairo Film Festival brought together Egyptian excellence and Arab excellence in one context, recognizing the importance of Arab-Egyptian national integration in the melting pot of cinematic creativity against the backdrop of the strong and solid relations between the Egypt and its sister countries from the Arab countries.
Alexandria Film Festival
Last October 5, with a dedication to the artist Mahmoud Hamida, the 38th edition of the Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Cinema was inaugurated, the brother of Tunisia chosen as guest of honor of the festival to celebrate the Egyptian Year- Tunisian of Culture.In the same context, the festival wanted to honor the French star Marianne Bourgeau with a ceremony The opening is among the international personalities to give the film 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
In the period from December 1st to December 10th 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 important Arab personalities and stars of the international cinema. Numerous films from different countries were screened. The world, however, the most important event was the opening of a global market for Arab and Saudi cinema, with the excitement of discovering new creative talent among the young Saudis and Arabs interested in cinema and wishing to study it and develop their talents in the fields of acting, directing, photography and other creative cinematic disciplines.
To encourage and ensure the success of the second film session of the newborn festival, its management took steps to award several valuable prizes to the winning films: the value of the first prize for the best film amounted to approximately $ 100,000, in addition to other prizes of variable value.
Festival of Return for Palestinian Cinema
Among the important international events for Palestinian cinema, in the name of waiting for the return, the Al-Awda International Film Festival was held for a week, about four months before the end of 2022. the stars sent their films to the festival management and were contacted through modern and advanced means of communication during the opening ceremony which was held in Gaza City.
Among the Egyptian stars who visited Palestinian cities in the recent past, in a unique and daring precedent, was Egyptian artist Ahmed Badir, who was honored by the festival by screening his film “A Date of Life” and presented him conferred the Grand Prize in the fifth session, in collaboration with the Palestine Technical College, which contributed to the birth of the festival and supported it, bringing the number of participating films to 177 films from 42 countries of the world.
Carthage Film Festival
Tunisia also celebrated the 33rd session of the Carthage Film Festival in a special creative atmosphere which contributed to the richness of the film movement in the countries of North Africa, the Arab world and Latin America. The closing ceremony was performed by singer Egyptian Sherine Abdel Wahab in a lovely artistic atmosphere.
The history of the Carthage Film Festival dates back to 1966, when it was established on the initiative of Taher Sharia and the task of overseeing it was entrusted to a specialized committee chaired by the Minister of Culture. The festival takes place annually between October and November and is the largest film festival ancient of southern Tunisia.
The aforementioned festival organizes several film competitions with different titles, including the Long Tapes Competition and the Small Tapes Competition.
Jordan Festival
On October 2nd, the Jordan Film Festival concluded its 10th session, in which the Moroccan film “Madad Akher” won three awards at the festival’s awards ceremony, for Best Integrated Work, Best Screenplay, Best Director and the best interpretation. the award went to Jordanian actor Muhammad Al-Ibrahimi for a role in the film “The Burial”.
It is worth noting that director Khairy Bishara headed the judging panel of the festival, which consisted of Dr. Ali Al-Rabeeat and Dr. Amer Gharaibeh from Jordan. The awards were presented at the Royal Cultural Center in Amman, in the presence of the Secretary -The General of the Ministry of Culture, Hazzaa Al-Barari, the Syndicate of Jordanian Artists, Muhammad Al-Abbadi, and the director of the festival, Abdul Karim Al-Jarrah.
Meta Film Festival
In a new and rapid development of film movement in Dubai UAE, the first session of Metta International Film Festival was launched in 2022, with 70 films from 25 countries participating.
For its part, the UAE itself participated as organizer with a group of short 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”, as well as numerous other Egyptian, Iranian, Swedish, Korean and Jordanian short films.
During its operation, the festival has hosted numerous 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 declarations of the director of the festival, 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 education, the map of Arab film festivals has been drawn throughout the year, and it has had a great positive impact in defining the frameworks for cultural interaction appropriately, according to the ambitious plans of the concerned and targeted messages .
