Abu Dhabi, UAE - 9 May, 2010
Marie-Pierre Macia to take charge of Abu Dhabi Film Festival’s new fund The Abu Dhabi Film Festival has appointed internationally acclaimed film programmer and producer Marie-Pierre Macia to oversee Sanad, the festival’s recently launched development and post-production fund for filmmakers from the Arab world. "Throughout her distinguished career, Marie-Pierre has discovered and championed many new talents and we are delighted to have her in charge of Sanad. Personally, professionally and intellectually, there’s no one better qualified for this job. Her international standing and her strong ties to the Arab film community are sure to help Sanad become one of the region’s essential sources of support for filmmakers,” said Peter Scarlet, executive director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. “And it’s great to have her working with me once again after the many years we collaborated in San Francisco.” Born in Algeria, Marie-Pierre Macia has compiled impressive programming and production credits. After San Francisco, she then moved on to head the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival, where she presented the first features of such renowned filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Carlos Reygadas and Stephen Daldry, as well as those of the pioneers of the Romanian New Wave, Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu and Corneliu Porombuiu. Her long-standing support of Middle Eastern cinema can be exemplified by her having been the first to bring the work of Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman to the attention of European viewers. Ms. Macia recently moved into producing, with credits including Adrian Sitaru’s Hooked (Romania, 2007), an award-winner at several festivals and the latest work of Hungarian master Béla Tarr and she is also producing Palestinian directors Kamal Aljafari and Ihab Jadallah. Since 2006, Macia has also served as the Artistic Director of Crossroads, the coproduction forum of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, where she brings together films in development with renowned industry experts, buyers, distributors, financiers and sales agents from all over the world. "By creating this fund, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival is responding to crucial needs in the Arab Film world. I am delighted to combine both my professional experience and personal origins in order to support talented filmmakers and carry forward the mission of the festival to nurture a vibrant regional film culture" said MariePierre Macia.
First Sanad applications received amid enthusiastic reactions from the film community The film world has reacted with great interest and enthusiasm to the launch of Sanad, announced on April 21, 2010. In less than two weeks, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival has already received five applications and numerous correspondence about many more projects, affirming the need for such initiatives in the Arab world. Every year, Sanad will allocate a total of $500,000 in development and post-production grants to outstanding regional filmmakers. "The feedback has been phenomenal, which goes to show the great potential of a fund like Sanad to help regional filmmakers develop and complete their projects. The Arab world is fertile ground for filmmaking and we are very happy that through the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and Sanad we can have a direct impact on the development of a film culture that is vital to a strong film industry,” commented Eissa Saif Rashed Al Mazrouei, the festival’s project director. To further raise international awareness of the new fund, Peter Scarlet and MariePierre Macia will be presenting Sanad at the Cannes Film Festival’s Producers Network (14 May, 2010, from 9 to 11am). ABOUT THE FESTIVAL The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (formerly the Middle East International Film Festival) was established in 2007, with the aim of helping to create a vibrant film culture throughout the region. The event, presented each October by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) - recently described by Newsweek as the leading cultural organization in the Arab world - under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, is committed to curating exceptional programs to engage and educate the local community, inspire filmmakers and nurture the growth of the regional film industry. As the only festival in the region where works by Arab filmmakers are represented equally in competition with those by major talents of world cinema, the festival offers Abu Dhabi’s diverse and enthusiastic audiences a means of engaging with their own and others’ cultures through the art of cinema. At the same time, a strong focus on the bold new voices of Arab cinema connects with Abu Dhabi’s role as a burgeoning cultural capital in the region and marks the festival as a place for the world to discover and gauge the pulse of recent Arab film. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival Press Office is at your disposal for any enquiries and further information. Email press@meiff.com or call +971 50 614 6653 to find out more.