The festival joins Human Rights Film Festival Berlin and Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos de Vieques as new members are announced by Human Rights Film Network for 2023.

Ramadan is the right time to catch up on all your favorite films, with Vox Cinemas offering a special discount, from the UAE to Saudi, and beyond.

The project selected feature exciting new voices from Saudi Arabia and the wider Arab and African regions, and were announced last week by Red Sea Labs as bound to participate in the Red Sea Lodge, a development program in collaboration with the TorinoFilmLab and sponsored by Film AlUla.

Narrative and Documentary Features, as well as Short Films from Qatar-based talent have been selected to participate in the prestigious annual industry incubator event.

The video series, which emphasizes the power of connection and the role social media can play in helping people build communities around social impact, launches with the unique stories of four Facebook community leaders in Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco.

Amos Gitai has never been far from our thoughts, or out of cinematic radars, with a film premiering almost every year at major film festivals like Venice and Cannes -- now he's bringing his tryptic of films about a house in Jerusalem to the stage in Paris and to La Biennale Architettura 2023.

We are proud to help spread the word about the new SVOD platform launched by our friends at Soleil Space and have a special code to enjoy a free subscription for all our MIME readers. So join up, sit back and enjoy!

Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen's Allen Media Group, has acquired North American DVD and VOD rights for the film and will release it starting February 21st, 2023.

The Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea IFF) has confirmed the third edition will take place from 30 November - 9 December 2023 in Jeddah, nestled on the eastern shore of the Red Sea.

Sandy Powell OBE is to be the first costume designer awarded a BAFTA Fellowship – the arts charity’s highest honor, with the Fellowship to be presented at the EE BAFTA Film Awards on 19 February.

Among the film personalities from the MENA serving on this year's juries in Berlin is Iranian-born actress Golshifteh Farahani, joining the Competition jury president Kristen Stewart, along with 'Souad' filmmaker Ayten Amin who is on the GWFF Best First Feature Award jury, and Israeli producer Danna Stern who will be on the Berlinale Series Award Jury.

Watch the official trailer and discover the poster of this gem which won Best Screenplay in Cannes, where it world premiered in May of 2022.

The Red Sea Film Festival Foundation announced the recipients of the Red Sea Fund’s 2022 production and post-production funding cycles, with 36 films by Saudi, Arab and African filmmakers slated to receive grants to help complete works that shine a light on important narratives and new talents emerging from the Region.

The romantic comedy by director and screenwriter Rebecca Miller boasts a cast of international stars that includes Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei, Joanna Kulig, Brian d’Arcy James and Anne Hathaway.

Among the MENA titles are 'The Swimmers' and 'Holy Spider', with Polish entry 'EO' also predictably on the list.

Black Box Cinema, one of the most attended film showcases in the UAE, is only 7 days away from the film submissions deadline for its 6th edition at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

Four Star Films, the leading film distributor in the Middle East, will begin distributing Central Partnership International content across the Middle East under an exclusive two-year contract with automatic renewal.

Among the 15 shortlisted for Best International Feature Film are 'Joyland', 'Cairo Conspiracy' and 'Holy Spider', plus Lebanese Live Action Short 'Warsha'.

The 9th edition will be held at Ithra Center in Dhahran, Eastern Province from 4 to 11 May 2023.

When all was said and done, the audiences were the winners at this year's Red Sea IFF.

This year's Red Sea IFF was a good place for Arab and world cinema.

There are also two shorts supported by Ithra Film Productions being screened, and Ithra’s Creative Solutions program will showcase its immersive digital technologies.

While the festival has moved away from the historic al-Balad neighborhood, in favor of the glitz of the Ritz Carlton, the evening still managed to sparkle and awe with dozens of stars from Hollywood, Bollywood and Arabwood attending the opening ceremony.

Comprising of two days of industry talks, one to one meetings and events, all overseen by Talent Days Godmother Kaouther Ben Hania, the cinematic incubator will give up and coming filmmakers a glimpse into their careers' future.

Irreverent, in your face and a truly entertaining watch, Basil Khalil's feature debut has been picked up for distribution by an equally cool company in the MENA and will play next at the Red Sea IFF in Jeddah, in early December.

This year's official UK entry to the Academy Awards Best International Feature Film race is written and directed by Hassan Nazer as well as being financed, pre and post produced in Scotland but shot entirely in Iran.

Legendary American film director, producer, and screenwriter, Oliver Stone will preside over the Festival’s Red Sea: Features Competition Jury, with some familiar names from the MENA region joining him.

With the Western world crying out "bloody murder" over human rights which they themselves don't respect, media outlets from the US to the UK are not concentrating on the groundbreaking aspect of the World Cup 2022 and how this is the first time an Arab nation has managed it, with class and style.

Jerzy Skolimowski's Polish-Italian co-production won the Jury Prize ex-aequo in Cannes and is Poland's entry to the 95th Academy Awards.

Presented by Egyptian TV personality Jasmine Taha Zaki, the opening ceremony of the 44th Cairo International Film Festival was followed by the MENA premiere of Steven Spielberg's 'The Fabelmans' and a lavish party in Uptown Cairo.

Distributed by MENA-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment, the 15th installment of the famed Anime series has rocketed to the top of the box office charts in Saudi Arabia and achieved the biggest opening ever for a Japanese Anime in the market.

UK Oscar submission 'Winners' by Hassan Nazer also received two nominations for the upcoming British Independent Film Awards, with the prizes to be handed out on December 4th.

The Doha Film Experience is an unmissable public showcase presenting the very best in Arab and international filmmaking, pop culture and art taking place over four action-packed weeks.

The film has been renamed 'Cairo Conspiracy' "to align with other international releases" and Samuel Goldwyn Films plans to release it in early 2023.

The festival will open in Beirut on Friday, 4th November with the French film 'Annette' by Leos Carax, starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver, and will run through the 20th of this month, moving around Lebanon to reach the widest audience.

The Forum, taking place in Dubai brings cinema stakeholders from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, CIS Countries and Turkey as experts discusses the growth of the creative economy and how the cinema industry contributes

BAFTA confirmed that Aberdeen-based, British-Iranian writer/director Hassan Nazer's film is the UK selection for next year's Oscars' International Feature Film award.

They will be joined by other world cinema greats for the Moroccan festival's 19th edition, scheduled to take place from 11 to 19 November 2022.

The festival's Audience Award went to the Jordanian 'Daughters of Abdulrahman', with Houman Seyyedi's 2022 Venice Orizzonti winner 'World War III' winning the festival's extraordinarily awarded "Middle East Now Special Mention."

The 59th edition of the festival saw world cinema and Turkish films alike walk away winners.

Asgari was also presented with a special ‘Ajyal Honorary Award’ by the youth Ajyal Jurors during the festival's 10th anniversary edition.

These include the struggles in cultural assimilation in an increasingly polarised world, highlighted within films such as Rachid Bouchareb's 'Our Brothers'.

Among the 15 participating projects in this 9th edition are Jordan's 'Inshallah A Boy' which won Final Cut in Venice, the latest from Egyptian director Tamer Ashry and 'Cotton Queen' by Suzannah Mirghani.

The film features a group of Arab and Jewish women collaborating in a video workshop and will now become Israel’s official selection for consideration in the nomination for next year's Best International Feature Oscar.

A Syrian-Palestinian filmmaker living in Sweden announces he has won prizes, withdrawn from a controversial festival and cultural organizations applaud his actions -- too bad it's all fake news.

And in his typically daring style, filmmaker Basil Khalil accepted the award in a video showing him holding a bottle of bleach -- standing in for the Oscar of course!

The Iranian helmer will be joined by Swiss director Petra Volpe and producer Daniel Dreifuss.

Featuring two short films by Sudanese and Russian filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani, followed by a cool Q & A, the program will stream this Saturday, Sept. 17th at 12 PM EST on YouTube.

Saudi’s rapidly expanding Arabia Pictures Group is teaming up with Greece’s based Tanweer, and setting up the stage for a strategic partnership -- and as that was announced we caught up with the company's CEO Roua Almadani on the Lido.

The coveted Golden Lion went to Laura Poitras' timely documentary 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed' while Italian-Algerian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino secured a Best Director Silver Lion for 'Bones and All', and Houman Seyedi's 'World War III' won the Orizzonti Award for Best Film.

In receiving the Label, the film will benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programming schedule.

Saim Sadiq’s debut feature is the first film by a Pakistani director to win at the Cannes Film Festival and alongside its jury prize, 'Joyland' also won the Queer Palme award at this year's festival on the Croisette.

The festival's platform, dedicated to films in post-production from African and Arab countries, wrapped its anniversary 10th edition on Sept. 5.

Sally El Hosaini's drama, based on the inspirational true-life story of Syrian sisters, will open the 18th Zurich Film Festival.

'All That Breathes' is directed by Shaunak Sen, premiered earlier in 2022 at Sundance, where it picked up the Best Documentary award, and then went on to secure L’Œil d’Or in Cannes, the first Indian film ever to do win the Grand Jury documentary prize.

The American Film Institute (AFI) program is a year-long directing workshop that educates traditionally underrepresented narrative filmmakers through the production cycle of a short film, providing hands-on instruction led by industry experts.

The legendary American director, writer and producer will also premiere his latest film 'Dead For A Dollar' at this year's Venice Film Festival.

MIME has once again partnered with Soleil Space for a Short Film Saturday that will bring together two extraordinary women filmmakers, in a selection not to be missed.

The upcoming ode to cinema by the 'Skyfall' and 'American Beauty' filmmaker is written, directed and produced by Mendes and stars Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Micheal Ward, among others.

Projects by Khalifa Almarri, AJ Al-Thani, Bothayna Al-Mohammadi, Mohammed Al-Suwaidi and Noor Al-Nasr have been chosen for the DFI's Spring Cycle.

When asked on a TikTok video which just went viral, Oscar Isaac hinted that perhaps...

The film, helmed by Belgian-Moroccan duo Adil & Bilall, was made for a streaming release on HBO Max later this year.

The gender-defying duo of women-helmed projects premiered at Sundance earlier in 2022, before moving on to other worldwide festivals where they each, seperately, garnered awards and recognition.

Applications are now open for youth aged 8-25 to join the internationally acclaimed Ajyal Jury Experience, with the 10th anniversary of the event in Qatar taking place from Oct. 1 to 8, 2022.

The winning films of the Black Iris Awards in the three Arab competitive categories were handed out at the closing and awards ceremony of the third edition.

An independent jury selected nine film projects to receive cash and in-kind awards in the development and post-production categories, in addition to four projects receiving the Amman Film Market Awards, out of the 18 Jordanian and Arab competing projects.

Although this will be the 79th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, the actual event kicked off 90 years ago, before being interrupted by fascism, WWII and some other political mishaps.

The jury for the Orizzonti Competition will be headed by Spanish director and screenwriter Isabel Coixet.

The Amman International Film Festival – Awal Film (AIFF) has announced the selected projects, which will participate in the pitching platforms of its industry branch, the Amman Film Industry Days (AFID).

The production, titled 'Home Operation', is shooting in Hajar al-Aswad, an area on the southern outskirts of Damascus which was heavily damaged during Syria's civil war and has also been called an ISIS hotbed.

Honig, responsible for bringing both homegrown and Hollywood productions to the city, will be replaced by Eyal Benvenisti.

Hatami and Moore will be joined by last year's Golden Lion winner, French Lebanese filmmaker Audrey Diwan, on a seven-member jury panel made up of three women and four men.

The series picked up the most nominations out of the Marvel universe, with 'Hawkeye' receiving just two, and 'Loki' scoring six nominations in total.

The multi-award winning filmmaker was arrested when he went to inquire about his fellow filmmakers who were incarcerated on July 8th.

New mascot avatar, new year but very little has changed in the way cinema from the Region is showcased at the Swiss festival.

The cinema event, which is scheduled to take place in Jeddah from December 1–10, 2022 has opened a call for applicants from Arab, Asian, and African countries to submit their projects to compete in their Yusr Awards.

They include Iranian thespian Amir Jadidi, Hindi superstar Kajol, 'Samsara' filmmaker Pan Nalin, Pakistani documentarian Mohammed Ali Naqvi, Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih and 'Tala'vision' helmer Murad Abu Eisheh.

The Best Film in the International Competition was awarded to 'Sansón and Me' directed by the Mexican Rodrigo Reyes with special mentions given to 'One Day in Ukraine' by Volodymyr Tykhyy and Nadim Mishlawi's film.

Produced by Image Nation Abu Dhabi and MBC Studios, 'Route 10' follows the story of siblings Maryam and Nasser who decide to travel from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi by car through the desert road in order to attend their father’s wedding.

This year Moscow Kurdish Film Festival (MoscowKFF) will be held from June 29 to July 13 in the iconic cinema center Oktyabr and in partnership with KARO.ART.

One night only, at the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington, the actress will chat with filmmaker Peter Webber as part of the Blue Orchid Hotels London Indian Film Festival.

After a cool, celebrity packed red carpet, the highly anticipated film kicked off the cultural event sponsored by Blue Orchid Hotels.

Abu Dhabi Film Commission hosted a tour for 19 Indian film industry leaders ahead of the International Indian Film Academy Awards which were held on June 2nd, 2022.

New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) announced an impressive line-up of acclaimed films direct from Cannes Film Festival 2022 that are set to feature in its 2022 programme, and among those are a few gems from the Region.

The reason for the decision was quoted as to "allow more time to focus on both the artistic and organizational side of upcoming editions," but our Yasmina Wardi has some other ideas.

The debut feature by Zaid Abu Hamdan will compete for the Golden Lynx Award for Best Fiction feature film as well as the CinEuropa Audience Award at the 18th edition of FEST – New Directors /New Films Festival.

This year's highly successful event has meant that next year's edition will increase in duration.

And don't think for a second that these thieves look like Cary Grant -- oh no, these are ugly times.

Kino Lorber picked up North American distribution rights for Mounia Akl's stunning feature debut.

Beretta, whose role is effective immediately, comes to Valentino from Nike where he was Partner Management Director for Southern Europe.

Belkhiria is a professional festival programmer and was Head of the industry platform Pro Carthage Film Festival.

The star of Italian and French cinema was born in La Goulette, the port area of Tunis, where a street has now been named in her honour.

This year's Un Certain Regard Competition included 20 feature films – seven of which are first features also competing for the Caméra d’or.

In an announcement from the Festival de Cannes, the Saudi Film Commission (SFC) launched the highly anticipated up to 40% cash rebate program "Film Saudi" -- now functional and open for applications via a dedicated platform for film productions.

The jury was headed by Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah and comprised of Monia Chokri, Félix Moati, Jean-Claude Raspiengeas and Laura Wandel.

Al Khaja, widely dubbed as the first female filmmaker in the UAE, and two-time Academy Award-winning music director A.R. Rahman came together at the 75th Cannes Film Festival to discuss Al Khaja’s highly anticipated upcoming feature film.

At an event hosted inside the Marché du Film, the Cairo International Film Festival team, headed by its new president Hussein Fahmy, met international journalists and hosted filmmakers from around the Region.

Following an 'In Conversation with Tom Cruise' which was part of the events surrounding the 'Top Gun: Maverick' world premiere, Cannes had a 9/11 moment.

The Maison dressed the leading lady of the opening night film Bérénice Bejo, as well as influencers Caro Daur and Rahi Chadda.

When he sat down with the international media on the eve of the 75th edition of the Festival de Cannes, Thierry Frémaux had to dance through quite a lot of uncomfortable questions, including some about the overloaded online servers which keep crashing.