In a first for Lebanon, “The Insult”, a movie by the Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri, was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category on January 23^rd, 2018. The movie clinched its first international award as Kamel el Basha, who plays the Palestinian refugee (Yasser), won Best Actor Award – Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup) at the Venice’74 festival, in August 2017. The movie was also recognized at two film events in California, receiving the American Film Institute festival’s audience award in November, and picking up a Bridging the Borders Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2018.

The 90th Academy Award ceremony will air live from Los Angeles on Sunday, March 4^th , 2018.

About the Movie

The film is a story of an insult that blown out between a Lebanese citizen and a Palestinian refugee. This movie shows how this dispute escalates into a nationwide crisis and a highly publicized trial that reflects the deep religious and political tensions in the Lebanese society.

About the Director

Ziad Doueiri, the director of the movie, is best known for his award winning film “West Beirut”. At the age of 18, during the Lebanese civil war, Ziad left Lebanon to study in the USA. Doueiri worked between Los Angeles and Beirut until 2011, after which he returned to work in Lebanon.

"Martyr" is a Lebanese film that is the first Arab project to be selected among hundreds of worldwide submissions by the Venice Biennale College- Cinema program . The College supports creative teams making micro-budgeted first or second features. The movie won a production grant and made its premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 2nd, 2017.

About the Movie

The film takes place close to the Beirut corniche which overlooks a spectacular rocky shore. Young men come from all suburbs whose streets are plastered with posters of martyrs and soldiers. They come to the shore, hoping for an escape, for some moments of forgetfulness, sheer joy and simple happiness amidst a climate of poverty and hopelessness. The film reexamines who a real martyr is and gives a fascinating look at the lives of the marginalized class in Lebanon today and an artistic depiction of fear, anxiety, despair and peer pressure among today’s youth.

About the Director

Mazen Khaled was born in Beirut. He studied Political Science and Public Policy at the American University of Beirut and Georgetown University in Washington, DC, as well as Film Production at Concordia University in Montréal.  He wrote and directed a number of TV ads, as part of working as a creative director for around 12 years. Mazen has written and directed a number of short films including "A Very Dangerous Man", "Our Gentleman of the Wings", "My Queer Samsara", and "Cadillac Blues".

Great News from Berlin! After the screening of “Makhdoumin” (A Maid for Each) at the 66th Berlinale Forum, Maher Abi Samra was awarded the Peace Film Prize.

Prior to Berlin Film Festival, the film was awarded at Venice International Film Festival 2014, and won two post-production awards.

“Makhdoumin” is a documentary about domestic service in Lebanon where foreign domestic workers are contracted under a system of full custodianship that deprives them of basic rights.

About the Director

Maher Abi Samra was born in Beirut in 1965. He studied Drama Arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut and Audio-Visual Studies at the Institut National de l’Image et du Son in Paris. He has directed several short and feature length documentaries including “WE WERE COMMUNISTS”, which was selected at Venice IFF in 2010, followed by the more recent, A MAID FOR EACH “MAKHDOUMIN”, which was selected at the Berlinale Forum 2016

Directed by Mai Masri, the feature “3000 Nights” won the Audience Award at the Annonay International Film Festival in France in February 2016.

“3000 Nights” made its world premiere in September 2015 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It then made its Arab world premiere in December 2015 as part of the Dubai International Film Festival’s 12th edition where it participated in the Muhr Arab Feature Films Competition.

Co-produced by the Lebanese “Sabine Sidawi”, the Palestenian” Mai Masri” and the French “Charlotte Uzu”, “3000 Nights” centres on a young newly-wed Palestinian school teacher who is jailed in a top-security Israeli prison where she eventually gives birth.

About the Producer

Sabine Sidawi is a Lebanese film producer and distributor. In 2007, she founded Orjouane Productions which is one of the most renowned production companies in Lebanon today.

She has produced, co-produced and line produced more than 25 fiction and documentary films, including: “May In The Summer” by Cherien Dabis (post-production), “Beirut Hotel” by Danielle Arbid, “Carlos” by Olivier Assayas, “We Were Communists” by Maher Abi Samra and “Every day Is A Holiday” by Dima El-Horr.

After receiving Actress Award at Festival de Halees in France, "Parisienne - Peur de Rien" is currently in negotiations for theatrical and commercial release in the United States.

The French title of Danielle Arbid’s fourth feature, a study of a young Lebanese woman restlessly accommodating herself to her new home in Paris during the mid-’90s, translates to “fear of nothing.” Manal Issa, playing Lina in Peur de Rien (Parisienne), won the “Best Actress Award” at Festival de Halles in France in December 2015.

About the Movie

Inspired by Arbid's own experience of migrating to France, the movie unfolds like a cinematic epistolary tale. Arbid charts the stages of Lina's evolution — in intellectual, emotional, and sexual terms — from naive migrant to the Parisienne of the title. As Lina, Issa conveys uncertainty, curiosity, and the same confidence that no doubt brought Arbid herself to the point of being able to tell this story of a young woman whose drive, intelligence, and appetite for life propel her constantly forward

About the Director

Danielle Arbid was born on April 26, 1970 in Beirut, Lebanon.  Arbid left Lebanon at the height of the civil war in 1987, at the age of 17 to study literature at a faculty of letters in Paris, France. She also studied journalism while working as a freelance French Journalist for five years. Her interests in journalism lead to a career in filmmaking when she directed her first documentary “Seule avec la guerre” in 1999. She is known for “Parisienne” (2015), “Beyrouth hotel” (2011) and “In the Battlefields” (2004).

“Looking at the Stars” began as a short film in the University of Southern California’s M.F.A thesis program in 2013.

In September 2015, the movie  produced by the Lebanese expatriate Sabrina Chammas and directed by Alexandre Perlata won the gold prize in the documentary category. The movie was selected from 33 finalists whittled down from a record number of entries — 1,686 films from 282 domestic and 93 international colleges and universities, according to the Academy.

The Student Academy Awards is a national student film competition held in Los Angeles at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Each year over 500 college and university film students from all over the United States compete for awards and cash grants, with films being judged in four categories: Animation, Documentary, Narrative and Alternative. Each category has three winners: bronze silver, and gold.

About the Movie 

The documentary follows the story of the dancers at the world’s only ballet school for the blind: the Fernanda Bianchini Association of Ballet and Arts for the Blind in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The movie focuses on portraying the girls’ desire to be known and appreciated for their skills in ballet, rather than defined by their disabilities.

A team of 13 students and alumni from University of Southern California USC, worked together on the movie, including producers Sabrina Chammas and Katrelle Kindred and Alexis Morrell.

About the Producer 

Sabrina Chammas earned her MFA in film production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and studied Communications and Business Administration at Northeastern University. Sabrina’s interests lie in socially conscious films that can help spread positive messages. She has produced several fiction and non-fiction films and is always looking for a good story to tell.  Sabrina has recently worked on a Oscar nominated documentary “The Square” alongside director Jehane Noujaim as executive assistant. She is currently working and living in Vancouver, Canada.