The Algerian Ministry of Culture and Arts has announced that Constantine’s iconic festival, Panorama Cinéma, now has official recognition.
By giving it that distinction the Ministry hopes to revive an event which “supports film-making and encourages young talent, while strengthening Constantine’s position as a cultural and artistic destination at national and international levels,” said Farid Zaïter, Constantine’s director of culture and arts.
Launched in the 1980’s, Panorama Cinéma was “considered Algeria’s main film event,” according to Le Quotidien de Constantine. As the newspaper says, the event worked closely with the Constantine Cinematheque and offered “one of the few institutional spaces dedicated to auteur cinema, documentaries and films with a strong social and political impact.” However, the upheavals of the “Black Decade” brought an end to the festival, as well as to many other cultural initiatives in Algeria.
Sources: Le Quotidien de Constantine, APS
