Cinema Mondial Tour expands into MENA region

International Film Festival Rotterdam / International Documentary Festival Amsterdam

PRESS RELEASE 21 May 2012

Cinema Mondial Tour expands into MENA region

The travelling film programme Cinema Mondial Tour of the Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) and the Jan Vrijman Fund (JVF) gets a third edition. For the first time the successful Tour will also travel to several Northern African and Middle Eastern countries next to touring Middle and Southern Africa. The funds of IFFR and IDFA contribute to the realization of film projects from developing countries and screen the finished films within The Netherlands. Since 2010, the Funds have joined forces in the Cinema Mondial Tour.

After two editions in sub-Saharan African countries, the Funds have decided to expand the scope of the Cinema Mondial Tour towards a new region: countries in the northern part of Africa and in the Middle East. To achieve this goal, the Funds collaborate with the Network of Arab Arthouse Screens (NAAS) that promotes art house film screenings in countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria. Films from this region are included in the new Cinema Mondial Tour programme (see full list below) together with works from the other parts of the world where the HBF and the JVF are active.

Cinema Mondial Tour is very successful. The first two editions attracted tens of thousands of visitors from the eleven participating film festivals in Africa. Several films picked up awards at these film festivals such as Turkish film Pandora’s Box by Yesim Ustaoglu or Iranian film Be Calm and Count to Seven by Ramtin Lafavipour during the Quintessence Film Festival in Benin.

Programme Cinema Mondial Tour 2012-2013

Fiction features supported by the Hubert Bals Fund:
DE JUEVES A DOMINGO - Dominga Sotomayor, 2012, Chile (Hivos Tiger Award-winner 2012)
GOODBYE - Mohammad Rasoulof, 2011, Iran
QARANTINA - Oday Rasheed, 2010, Iraq
WINTER VACATION - Li Hongqi, 2010, China
TILVA ROSH - Nikola Ležaic, 2010, Serbia

Documentary films supported by the Jan Vrijman Fund:
DOLLS, A WOMAN FROM DAMASCUS - Diana El Jeiroudi, Syria, 2008
KING NAKI AND THE THUNDERING HOOVES - Tim Wege, South Africa, 2011
LAST TRAIN HOME - Lixin Fan, Canada, China, 2009
THE CITY OF PHOTOGRAPHERS - Sebastian Moreno, Chile, 2006
THE INVISIBLE POLICEMAN - Laith El-Juneidi, Palestine/UAE, 2011


Partner festivals:
• Cameroon – Ecrans Noirs – Festival Internacional de Cinéma de Yaoundé
• Burundi – Festival Internacional du Cinema et de l’Audiovisuel du Burundi
• Rwanda – Rwanda Film Festival
• Tanzania – Zanzibar International Film Festival
• South Afrika – Durban International Film Festival
• Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe International Film Festival
• Kenya – Kenya International Film Festival
• Oeganda – Amakula Kampala International Film Festival
• Democratic Republic of Congo – Salaam Kivu International Film Festival
• Ethiopia – Ethiopian International Film Festival
• Senegal - Festival du Film du Dakar
• Benin – Quintessence
• Zambia – Lusaka International Film Festival
• Nigeria – Africa International Film Festival
• Tunesia – Carthage Film Festival (to be confirmed)


Partners NAAS-netwerk:

• Metropolis Art Cinema (Libanon)
• Cinematheque de Tanger & the ESAV (Ecole Superieure des Arts Visuels) (Marokko)
• Al Balad Theatre (Jordanië)
• Doxbox (Syrië)
• Chrysalide (Algerije)
• Al Kasaba Theatre and Cinematheque (Palestina)
• The Jesuit Cultural Centre & de Semat (Egypte)
• CinemAfricArt (Tunesië)

The Hubert Bals Fund is supported by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hivos Culture Foundation, DOEN Foundation, Dioraphte Foundation, MEDIA Mundus and Lions Club Rotterdam.

The Jan Vrijman Fund is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hivos Culture Foundation, DOEN Foundation, Culture of Resistance and MEDIA Mundus.

More information about the Cinema Mondial Tour and the participating film festivals on
IFFR webpage Cinema Mondial Tour
Or
IDFA webpage Cinema Mondial Tour


(End of press release)

Note to the Editor:

Press information & image material:
IDFA / Laura van Halsema, +31 20 6273329 / [email protected]
IFFR / Bert-Jan Zoet, +31 10 8909090 / [email protected]