The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (best-known as the home of The Oscars), in association with Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), is to host Arab Cinema Classics, a two-day screening series of the best in Arab film on Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 21, at the Bing Theater in Los Angeles.
The films will be selected from DIFF’s 100 Greatest Arab Films list, published last year to celebrate the festivals 10th anniversary and compiled in collaboration with a number of critics, academics and other industry professionals. The list also formed part of the first ever Arabic-English cinema book, Cinema of Passion, also published last year.
The screening series is part of the Academy’s International Outreach initiative, which brings together Academy members representing a range of cinematic crafts with filmmakers and film lovers from around the world. The Academy and DIFF previously announced a partnership in November 2013, whereby a delegation from the Academy designed and hosted a customised programme of events for DIFF 2013. During the festival the Academy also announced that DIFF had qualified as a Festival that can contribute short films for Oscar consideration. The qualification will apply to the Muhr Arab and Muhr Asia Africa shorts competitions, making the festival the first from the Arab world to be on the list. Winning films from last year’s festival can qualify for the Academy’s 2015 competition.
Films screening in LA include Chadi Abdel Salam’s 1970 film The Night of the Counting of the Years (Friday 13, 7.30pm), Youssef Chahine’s 1958 classic Cairo Station (Friday 13, 9.20pm) and Ziad Doueiri’s 1998 coming of age drama West Beirut (Saturday 14, 7.30pm).
