Producers and movie professionals from the Arab area mentioned their notion of a “quota system” at festivals in addition to distribution challenges, throughout a panel held by the World Cinema Fund along with Berlinale Skills.
Alaa Karkouti, CEO of Arab movie distribution outfit Mad Options, advised that festivals had a “quota” for various areas outdoors of Europe, together with the Arab area.
“Whereas there’s improved house for Arab movies at festivals like Cannes and Venice, I all the time really feel like there’s a form of quota,” stated Karkouti. “Like right here, media have requested me, ‘how do you’re feeling with Yunan in the principle competitors?’ This query is requested with good intentions however you’ll by no means ask that of a European movie.”
Comprised of 5 subsidiaries, Karkouti’s Cairo-headquartered Mad Options is concerned with movie gross sales, administration and advertising and marketing for Arab movies and runs operations within the UAE, Jordan and Lebanon, amongst others.
Karkouti was referring to Berlin competitors movie Yunan, which Mad Options additionally reps for MENA area gross sales. The function is written and directed by Ameer Fakher Eldin, and is a co-production between Germany, Canada, Italy, Palestine, Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The dialogue was a part of the “World Cinema Fund (WCF) Day” occasion, which additionally served to spotlight 5 WCF-supported movies within the Berlinale 2025 program, together with competitors title The Message, Berlinale Particular movie Ancestral Visions of the Future, in addition to The Settlement, Khartoum and Minimals in a Titanic World.
Sound designer Rana Eid, from Lebanon, who labored on Berlin competitors title Scorching Milk, additionally echoed comparable sentiments on competition quotas in programming.
“Typically, I don’t need to be seen as a Lebanese sound designer, I don’t need to be labeled and I don’t need quotas,” stated Eid. “Now that I’m engaged on the worldwide degree, I really feel like my job is identical, whether or not I’m working with a Yemeni or Lebanese movie, now we have the identical line of questioning and similar strategy to sound.”
Nevertheless, with greater than 20 years of expertise behind her, Eid identified that there are distinctive challenges behind-the-scenes dealing with Arab movie professionals.
“With Arab international locations, now we have numerous psychological challenges as a result of we come from international locations that aren’t very nicely,” stated Eid.
Karkouti highlighted Sudanese drama movie Goodbye Julia as a superb instance of a movie that has obtained immense essential and industrial success, however began off having a difficult distribution journey.
The debut function from Mohamed Kordofani, Goodbye Julia was the primary Sudanese title ever introduced within the Un Sure Regard part of the Cannes Movie Competition, in 2023.
Nevertheless, Karkouti stated that it was troublesome work attempting to persuade cinemas to select up the movie, though the movie ended up doing very nicely throughout the Gulf international locations. Karkouti shared that the movie simply obtained distribution in China three months in the past.
“Cinemas-wise, it’s all the time difficult and generally it’s about luck,” stated Karkouti. “It labored nicely with Goodbye Julia, the place we felt that it might have field workplace success and it ended up breaking information. It made nice earnings for the Gulf international locations and you’ll hope that the cinemas will change their thoughts in future since they’ve had success.
Karkouti added that he sees the theatrical enterprise as a “100%” form of endeavor, the place cinemas have extraordinarily restricted urge for food for threat within the Arab area and rely closely on American content material.
“Now we have success with pushing movies, nevertheless it’s nonetheless not straightforward, and we find yourself pushing for smaller screenings or restricted screenings,” added Karkouti. “There are nonetheless countless tales to current to the artwork world nevertheless it’s difficult for finance and for censorship, because it actually will depend on every nation.”
Egyptian producer Kesmat El Sayed, who lately relocated to Berlin, additionally stated that working in between the Arab and European industries introduced a brand new set of challenges. She labored on The Settlement, a title in Berlin’s Views program.
“I encourage individuals to suppose and replicate why they need to produce with Arab filmmakers,” stated El Sayed. “In the event that they don’t begin pondering why, it’s straightforward to finish up in a transactional relationship.”