The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) has announced the recipients of grants of the first cycle of its Sanad Fund for this year which mounts to $500,000 fund awards grants to Arab filmmakers to assist in the pre- and post-production phase of their projects and out of the 112 films in the running, 16 have been chosen and were announced on Monday at the ongoing Cannes film festival. Furthermore, submissions for the second and final cycle will be accepted from next month according to the festival organisers.
'My Sweet Pepperland', which is a film by Iraqi-Kurdish director Huner Saleem, will be screened as part of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard official selection this year, and happens to be one of the recipients of the post-production (Narrative) grant while it was also awarded a development grant by Sanad last year.
Amongst the other recipients in Narrative include 'Theeb' by Naji Abu Nowar, 'In the Sands of Babylon' by Mohammed Jabarah Al Daradji and 'Fevers' by Hicham Ayouch. Subsequently Grants were also awarded to three documentary films for post-production and two for development phase while seven narratives received development grants.
Ali Al Jabri, the director of ADFF speaks out that it’s important to note that support for the grantees doesn’t just stop at financing and that the Sanad Fund is dedicated to providing year-round creative as well as industry advice to the grantees.
The Sanad Fund was launched in 2010, three years after ADFF was established, to raise the bar of Arabic cinema wherein each post-production grantee can receive up to $60,000 of funding, while development grantees can receive up to $20,000 of funding. Submissions for the second and final cycle for this year can be made between June 1 to July 1.
To find out how, go to adff.ae/sanadfund.
The following are the complete list of Sanad Fund grant recipients from the first cycle:
Post-Production - Narrative
• My Sweet Pepper Land (Iraq, France, Germany, UAE), directed by Hiner Saleem
• Theeb (Jordan, UAE, Qatar), directed by Naji Abu Nowar
• In the Sands of Babylon (Iraq, UK, Netherlands, UAE), directed by Mohammed Jabarah Al Daradji
• Fevers (Morocco, France, UAE), directed by Hicham Ayouch
Post-Production - Documentary
• Whispers of the Cities (Iraq, UAE), directed by Kasim Abid
• Pirates of Salé (Morocco, France, UK, UAE), directed by Merieme Addou, Rosa Rogers
• The Camel of the Mill (Tunisia, UAE), directed by Hamza Ouni
Development – Narrative
• Nawara (Egypt), directed by Hala Khalil
• No One There (Egypt), directed by Ahmed Magdy
• A Dog’s Tail (Jordan), directed by Rami Yasin
• Beirut Solo (Lebanon), directed by Sabah Haider
• The Passerby (Palestine), directed by Kamal Al Jafari
• Casting (Palestine), directed by Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser
• The Day I Lost my Shadow (Syria), directed by Soudade Kaadan
Development – Documentary
• Baba and the Colonel (Libya), directed by Khalid Shamis
• Looking for Essam Abdullah (Egypt), directed by Yasser Naeim
Content source: Gulf news
Image source:Abu Dhabi Film Festival
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
