Film industry project to boost Moroccan cinema

Moroccan communication Minister, Nabil Benabdellah, announced on Tuesday that Morocco has made a new step toward having a new cinema and audio-visual industry through a project dubbed "Film Industry."

The project will allow producing 30 films in 2006/07 by the national radio and TV company (SNRT) and Ali'n Production, with the aim of producing high quality movies at a low cost.

Director of SNRT-SOREAD 2M, Faïçal Laâraïchi, said the project, worth MAD 36 million (USD 4mn), is a "qualitative progress in the audio-visual sector and cinema" and will allow having a genuine cinema industry in Morocco.

The project, aimed partly at backing the national production, will also help fighting piracy since the films will be sold in VCD and DVD at a low cost, said Laâraïchi.

Ali’n Production director, Nabil Ayouch, said "Film Industry" is not only a cinema project but it is also aimed at highlighting the Moroccan identity by drawing on the diversity of the Moroccan culture.

The project also aspires to discover new talents (producers and actors) and to train youngsters in cinema-related jobs.

OTHER FILM NEWS

MEDA Films Development (MFD), a project initiated by Ali n' Productions in partnership with the Marrakech Film Festival Foundation, has selected 10 film projects for their 2006 film developing programme. MFD received 29 applications from all MEDA countries, except Syria.


Nabil Ayouch (L), director of Ali n' Productions

MFD, which is funded by the European Union-funded Euromed Audiovisual II programme, aims at promoting synergies between producers and scriptwriters of the MEDA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey) and between MEDA and European producers.

It also aims to boost cinematographic projects of the South Mediterranean countries.

Nabil Ayouch, director of Ali n' Productions said earlier in a press conference that “in the MEDA countries, professionals of motion pictures face common problems in the development of cinematographic projects.”

“These problems are essentially linked to the lack of training in both scriptwriting and film production. Therefore, training these professionals will eventually improve filmmaking projects in the MEDA countries.”

The producers and scriptwriters who are selected will attend three workshop sessions a year, which will take place in April, July and October 2006 in Marrakech (Morocco).

During the three sessions, the participants will have the opportunity to follow a number of rich and adapted activities fitting their specific needs.

The major themes of the workshops will include scriptwriting, rights and contracts between the scriptwriters and producers, the producer's role, the artistic features of the filmmaking process, the marketing and communication aspect of the film, and the film distribution.

The selected films included: Au bout du tunnel by Adlane Khodja and Anis Djaad (Algeria), Sense of Will by Nizar Yunès and Shady Srour (Israel),Temporarely Unsignified by Baher Agbaria and Juna Suleiman (Israel), Le Testament by Pierre Sarraf and Nadim Tabet (Lebanon), Un homme d'honneur by Michel Ghosn and Jean-Claude Codsi (Lebanon), Oum by Olga Nakkas (Lebanon), Dancing At The Check Point by Karma Abu Sharif and Ismaël Habbash (Palestine), Azrayl by Mohieddine Temimi and Semy El Haj (Tunisia), Revolutionist Youth Bridge by Selda Salman and Bahriye Kabadayi (Turkey), Elif by Devici Sadik and Voskay Sibel (Turkey)

The Euromed Audiovisual II is a three year programme launched in January 2006 to contribute to mutual understanding between the peoples of the European Union and the South of the Mediterranean by underlining their common values and the cultural diversity of the Mediterranean region.

The programme has been designed to constitute a process of experiences and know-how, to develop a better understanding through a higher diffusion of audiovisual productions between the two shores of the Mediterranean and to support the development of Mediterranean film projects

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news