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The Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s New Fund For Arab Filmmakers Announces First Round Of Grant Recipients |
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The Abu Dhabi Film Festival today announced the first round of recipients of its recently launched Sanad film fund. A total of US$500,000 in grants for development and post-production is being provided to 28 outstanding feature-length narrative and documentary films by both new and established filmmakers from all over the Arab world. A list of the selected projects follows below. Sanad is the Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s development and post-production fund. It provides talented filmmakers from the Arab world with meaningful support from within the region towards the development or completion of their feature-length narrative and documentary films. Established in April 2010, Sanad (a synonym for “support” or “help” in Arabic), provides grants to both upcoming and established Arab filmmakers in two categories: development funds of up to US$20,000 and post-production funds of up to US$60,000 per project. The film world responded with great enthusiasm to the launch of Sanad, with dozens of submissions being made in the first few weeks alone. During the selection process, the Sanad team was excited to discover a fascinating new trend in Arab film: a large number of filmmakers from all over the region are developing experimental, daring films. Describing 2010 as the ’Year of the Independents’, the team noted that there was a marked trend towards artistic innovation and radical departures from the conventional in style, language and approach. Interestingly, young directors are not the only ones taking thematic and stylistic risks; seasoned directors are also straying from the beaten path. Broken narrative structures, off-kilter characters and unconventional image composition are used to pose serious questions about the status quo. Even though political engagement remains mostly abstract and indirect, these films are bound to surprise viewers. “We are privileged to be the first-hand witnesses of such an exciting trend and we want to transmit this passion to audiences in Abu Dhabi and beyond. Artistic films can be difficult, but the courage of the directors, screenwriters, editors and actors to step away from formulas is one of the most reassuring signs of the vitality and potential of Arab filmmaking,” said Marie-Pierre Macia, head of Sanad. Peter Scarlet, executive director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, added, “I am not sure there has been a comparable trend towards artistic independence here since the late 1960s. These filmmakers are breaking the mold and developing a new cinematic vocabulary that is unique to the Arab region. It is our mission to provide these inspired artistic experiments with the support they need.” “We are committed to fostering a vibrant regional film culture and the high number of applications for Sanad shows that independent films are an important and growing part of it. These daring films reflect Abu Dhabi’s spirit of openness and innovation and we are proud to help Arab filmmakers explore new directions,” commented Eissa Saif Al Mazrouei, the Festival’s project director. As the first film fund in the region to be connected to a festival, Sanad benefits recipients not only through generous funding, but also from the international exposure of festival screenings as well as year-round publicity and support. Every October, the Festival is committed to showing many of the Sanad-funded films. There are two open calls for applications each year. The second cycle of Sanad grants will be announced in February 2011. |
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