ABOUT

The Arab Film Festival (formerly known as Sydney Arab Film Festival) has reached a major milestone and later this year will tour the nation. The Festival Directors will curate a selection of entertaining and breathtaking films to take to film lovers starting with a launch and screening in the Sydney CBD and then on to Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra. The national tour has been made possible with the support and funding received by the Australia Council for the Arts and Australian Human Rights Commission, in addition to the support of our corporate and community partners.

The Arab Film Festival aims to showcase stories from diverse Arabic-speaking cultures to broad Australian audiences that reflect the complexity and diversity of Arab communities and experiences. We aim to address the (mis)representations of Arab culture through film by providing critical spaces to present alternative representations of Arab cultures, subjects and narratives

In 2009 we are proud to announce that we have officially become the Arab Film Festival Australia. The festival will be held from 2-5 July at Riverside Theatres Parramatta.

As a community-managed cultural event, the Arab Film Festival supports freedom of thought, expression and information, as well as diversity of screen media to enable cultural expressions to flourish. We especially promote diversity of cultural expressions that allow individuals to share their ideas, values, and experiences of the world.

Managed by Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE) and driven by an organising committee. ICE continues to support and build the festival to ensure that it becomes an independent and sustainable creative enterprise.

HISTORY

Sydney Arab Film Festival was first held in April 2001 over three days at The Roxy Parramatta as an associated event of Casula Powerhouse’s ‘East of Somewhere’ exhibition. This first Festival was managed by Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE), and was a partnership with Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Fairfield Community Resource Centre, Powerhouse Museum (Wattan project) and was supported by New South Wales Film and Television Office, Parramatta City Council and Village Cinema.

In 2004, Information & Cultural Exchange hosted another Sydney Arab Film Festival event: A Big Night of Arab Shorts. It was held at Hoyts Merrylands in conjunction with Holroyd City Fest and showcased local short films by Arab Australian filmmakers.

In 2005, 48 local and internationally produced films were screened across Campbelltown, Parramatta and Bankstown. Some of the highlights included Egyptian Classics from 1947-71, the Australian premiere of Youssef Chahine’s ‘Alexandria New York’, epic drama ‘The Door to the Sun’ which spans 50 years from Palestine in 1948, along with a range of student films from ALBA Fine Arts Academy, Lebanon.

In 2007, SAFF presented a showcase of cutting-edge Arabic cinema, and hosted three international guests. Egyptian filmmaker Tamer Ezzat introduced and screened his feature-length documentary ‘The Place I Call Home’, while visiting filmmakers Nizar Hasan (Palestine) and Eliane Raheb (Lebanon) screened their films and co-presented at the engaging ‘Under Siege Forum’.

Also premiered at the Festival were ‘Bedwin Hacker’ by Nadia el-Fani (Tunisia), ‘The Last Man’ by Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon), and ‘Leila Khaled - Hijacker’, the highly anticipated documentary with the first female highjacker, by Palestinian Lina Makboul.

The festival also featured TONE, an audio-visual exhibition of experimental works by Arab Artists (curated by Khaled Sabsabi) presented by Casula Powerhouse.

The 2008 Sydney Arab Film Festival was held over four days 10-13 April and screened to packed houses. We opened with Caramel (Sukkar Banat) a feature and the latest hit from Lebanon. Opening night sold out weeks ahead of the festival. Audiences engaged with genuine, diverse stories and narratives about Arab culture. It featured international and Australian films made by Arabic-speaking filmmakers, selected from and representing a diversity of experiences, stories and identities. Etihad Airways made it possible for us to host Egyptian filmmaker Saad Hendawy who directed Seventh Heaven - a film which explored love, life and the beauty of Sufism.

SHUKRAN & THANKS

The 2009 Arab Film Festival has come together with the support and commitment of many individuals, our partners, funding bodies and sponsors. We would like to especially thank Cecelia Cmielewski - Austalia Council for the Arts, Robert Love, Pene Bloch, Spiros Hristias and Jonathon Llewellyn - Riverside Theatres, Vivian Accardo and Nicholas Pickard - Parramatta City Council, Consul General Tarek Abousenna, Vice Consul Bassel Taman, and Marcia Leadbeatter -Consulate of Egypt in Sydney, Nouf Al Hammadi - Gulf Film Festival, Eliane Raheb - Ayyam Beirut Al Cinemayat, our amazing graphic designer Meiying Saw at ragingyoghurt.org, Layal and Layla Naji, Paul Laoumitzis, Timo Mueller, Jonathon Spring, Nathan Roxburgh, Cheryl Cook, Norhan Youssef and the fabulous team at - Etihad Airways,.

A special shukran and thanks to the ICE Board and Staff for their support, and all the people that come and go from time to time, doing what they can to make things happen including all our volunteers, placements, consultants, family and friends.

GET INVOLVED AND VOLUNTEER during the festival. Send us a message with your information (name, telephone number and email address) and general availability during the festival and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT AND DONATIONS are tax deductable as we are supported by the not-for-profit charitable organisation (ICE). Contact us to make a donation of any kind or if you would like to be a sponsor.