The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has launched an online poll of the
region’s most prominent film critics, writers, novelists, academics and other cultural
figures who will collectively nominate the best 100 films of Arab cinema from its
beginnings to the present day. This initiative has been launced to celebrate the
DIFF’s landmark 10th edition.
After determining the 100 films, they will be documented in an Arabic-English
cinematic encyclopedia that will be released during the DIFF’s 10th anniversary
edition from 6 to 14 December 2013.
This is the first project of its kind in the Arab world. DIFF chairman Abdulhamid Juma
stresses the importance of this unique endeavour: “The encyclopedia project provides
an exceptional opportunity to identify the glorious milestones in the history of Arab
cinema as judged by today’s most prominent cultural commentators. Since DIFF’s
inception, our core mandate has been to support and nurture Arabic cinema, and we
yearly recognise its greatest practitioners with our Lifetime Achievement Awards
programme. A poll of this nature is key in documenting, promoting and preserving the
Arabic cinematic legacy, for Arabs and non-Arabs alike.’
The list of candidate films will include all Arab cinema productions in all Arab
countries, as well as co-productions between Arab and foreign filmmakers, providing
the subject matter relates to “Arab’ themes and the director is of Arab descent.
“The scope of this exercise is certain to turn up some forgotten gems of Arab cinema,
and will forge a new relationship between Arab filmmakers and their audiences – a
renewed recognition of the importance and relevance of regional films,’ says Masoud
Amralla Al Ali, DIFF artistic director.
“It also reinforces a strong relationship between cinema of the past and present,
giving an important cinematic and historical context to movements and important
figures that continue to influence us today.’
The completed encyclopedia will be released during the DIFF 2013, and will be
distributed to international and regional libraries as an indispensable reference to the
study of Arab cinema.
