DUBAI: MENA Cinema Forum is the first and only regional business conference on the cinema industry in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that focused on the growth opportunities of the region’s cinema industry.
The Two-day forum covered several key topics with series of interactive presentations, interviews and discussions on regional investments on cinema industry that were facilitated by all the global experts. The important topic and highlight issues of conference comprise mainly of economic impact of the growing cinema market in the MENA region, the effect of the Saudi cinema market expansion across the region and the industry, how can all stakeholders sync efforts to build a successful industry, how to design & construction of cinema theatres and current global trends in cinema industry.
Leila Masinaei, Managing Director of GM Events said, “We are very delighted about how the event has turned out. Over the 2-day MENA Cinema forum, there were 800 attendees come through the doors, from high officials and industry experts, cinema exhibitors, distribution company to government officials. We had extremely fruitful business networking meetings. We had some very good side events along. We had some developers from Saudi Arabia, Majid Al Futtaim and as well as Cinepolis. Great relationships have been formed throughout the event.
“For 2019, we are going to expand all the talks. I had many discussion with all the major operators. We are going to expand the topic of productions. Productions of Hollywood and Bollywood movies in Middle East. But most importantly the production of Arab cinemas. Production by youth of MENA region. We will try to build Major financing and distribution companies’ support. There will be session on Movie editing, directing and casting to help the industry here and develop further.
“I can confirm so far, we have four movie premiere confirmed for MENA Cinema Forum 2019. Two from major studios and two regional movies. So the next year’s edition will be a massive festival. We will have a day or half a day dedicated to only awards. We are very excited about the next edition, which will be held during 12 to 14 of November 2019.”
On the first day of the event, Leila Masinaei, Managing Director of GM Events announced award for the year 2018. MENA Cinema/Knauf Award – a key feature of the forum took centre stage on 28th October 2018, where the Jumanji was recognised for the 52 weeks Box office award and Novo cinema was awarded with best exhibitor’s award. Cinepolis, Prolab, Fox and Uturn was awarded with appreciation award. The winners were honoured by the Knauf’s CEO, Amer Bin Ahmed.
A number of key players from several industries, inspiring business leaders, renowned cinema industry experts including such as Cameron Mitchell, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Cinemas, Ashish Shukla CEO of Cinepolis Gulf/Gulf Entertainment, Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen, CEO of Novo Cinemas, Amer Bin Ahmed, CEO of Knauf, Middle East and India, Dr. Martin Berlin,Partner, PWC, Rashed Al Osail, General Manger of Expansions, Cinepolis KSA and P. V. Sunil, Managing Director, Carnival Cinemas led interesting speeches and discussions on investment in cinema industry, current trends, future of the cinema industry in this region, strategic implementation on this industry and competitive operations.
On the second day, the panel discussion on “Cinema content for the Arab world” was moderated by Leila Masinaei. On that discussion Kaswara Al-Khatib, Chairman, UTURN, Colin Brown, Managing Partner (International), MAD Solutions & Arab Cinema Centre, Bassam Hajjawi, President/CEO, international distribution agency discussed about work and collaboration of Arab cinema, film financing, international and local production houses and young talent from the MENA region on expanding Arab storytelling and reaching a wider target audience.
“At Saudi, business model needs to be completely different. We cannot certainly compete with Japanese, American and European films right now. But we can definitely create something different. We also want to express our culture to the outer world through our cinemas.” Said Kaswara Al-Khatib, Chairman, UTURN.
They discussed on creating content for engaging all Saudi demographic factors and tailoring the content as per the Saudi culture.
“There is a need of some psychological and structural changes not only in Saudi but also throughout the region. And as a professional industry, we cannot only depend on foreign movies. To be completely independent, we need to train young talent from this region to come up with good Arabic content. I’m sure MENA cinema industry can grow 10 times bigger than what it is now.” Said Colin Brown, Managing Partner (International), MAD Solutions & Arab Cinema Centre.
Another key topic of the discussion was how Arab cinemas are getting international recognition nowadays and how stronger strategies and supply chain can improve it.
Bassam Hajjawi, President/CEO, International Distribution Agency talked about how many Lebanese cinemas are getting international recognition. He also added, “We see so many young talent among us, who can shine. We need to follow international Arab style. We need big stars from this region. And it’s only possible if we focus on bring Arab style, culture and characteristics to the cinemas.”
Julian Stanford, Senior Director, Dolby spoke on How Dolby is revolutionizing the premium cinema experience with Dolby Cinema.
Jan Runge, Independent Advisor, Cinema Strategy and Implementation, discussed with four panelist on next generation of cinema technology and experience and the use of innovative technologies to boost the industry.
The 2-day MENA Cinema Forum, the largest annual gathering of cinema stakeholders as well as other sector’s key players and delegates across the MENA region, was full of flurry of activities including press conferences, key note speeches, panel discussions, presentations, exhibitions, Gala Dinner, Awards, workshops, break-out meetings, party, site visits and 21st centuries’ major announcements on 2019’s upcoming movies and ended with special screening of the movie “First Man”.
First Man is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Damien Chazelle and written by Josh Singer. Based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen, the film stars Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, alongside Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Ciarán Hinds, Christopher Abbott, Patrick Fugit, and Lukas Haas, and follows the years leading up to the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. Steven Spielberg serves as an executive producer. News Desk
