In February Bashir Youcef Sehairi, Secretary of State responsible for the Cinema Industry under the Minister of Culture and Arts, and Saida Naghza, chair of the Confédération Générale des Entreprises Algériennes (CGEA), met in Algiers to discuss the development prospects of the country’s film industry. The meeting ended with a planned cooperation agreement to place Algeria at the heart of the international film industry.
The government wants to encourage investment for new cinemas, production and post-production studios across the country.
Their meeting comes a year after the first meeting of the Association des Producteurs Algériens de Cinéma, when the APAC chair was already calling for the funding system to be reviewed, for new regulations and a development plan for the industry. APAC particularly regretted the lack of cinemas but also drew attention to the desperate need to create a viable film distribution network and renew the obsolete production equipment. At the same time the Forum de la Cinémathèque Algérienne also lamented “the dreadful situation of the distribution network: i.e. the state of the country’s cinemas and the small number of them (less than twenty), compared with nearly 500 at independence.”
The chaotic state of Algeria’s film industry was first revealed in Hanane Guendil’s reportage “Rendez-nous nos salles de cinéma!” broadcast on TV5 in 2018.
For more information about Algerian cinema, click here.
Sources: lexpressiondz.com, allafrica.com, algerie-medinfo.com, elwatan.com, aps.dz, aps.dz, dzvid.com
