From March 21st to 27th, the town of Annaba celebrated its 3rd Mediterranean Film Festival, which, after 25 years absence, made a comeback in 2015. According to the festival’s commissioner, Saïd Ouled Khalifa, the event “has met the challenge of quality and training to establish itself first of all as a place to discover great films while also giving young people the chance to get a training in professional film-making”.
Belgium is this year’s guest of honour, and the opening ceremony included a screening of “Une famille syrienne” by Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw.
This year’s theme was “Peace for the Mediterranean”. The Annaba Festival of Mediterranean Film screened 60 films, including 20 in the two official competitions, one for feature films and one for documentaries. The feature film jury was chaired by French script-writer Jacques Fieschi. Algerian films in that category included Yasmine Chouikh’s “Until the end of time” and Karim Moussaoui’s “En attendant les hirondelles” (Waiting for Swallows), both competing for the Annab d’Or.
Tributes were paid to Tunisian director Ridha Behi for a lifetime achievement, and posthumously to film-maker Taïeb Louhici, with a screening of his last film, “La rumeur de l’eau”.
There was also a celebration of 50 years of Palestinian cinema, with several films being shown. Finally there were professional training workshops, in particular for script writing, writing a documentary and on the relationship between the cameraman and the director.
Sources: El Moudjahid, vinyculture, TSA, aps.dz
