The 29th Carthage Film Festival will take place in Tunis from November 3rd to 10th. Films will be screened in 19 cinemas, and for the first time at the Cité de la Culture, inaugurated last March. 200,000 spectators are expected in Tunisian cinemas and over a million in the streets of Tunis, which will host about fifty events.
Since 1966 the Carthage Film Festival has been dedicated to African and Arab films, this year receiving some 800 applications. 206 were selected, representing 47 countries. 13 feature films are competing for the Golden Tanit, including Rafiki by Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya), Mon cher enfant by Mohamed Ben Attia (Tunisia) and La Miséricorde de la jungle by Joel Karekezi (Rwanda). The grand jury will be chaired by American Deborah Young, film critic and editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter’s international film section. In official competition also: 12 short drama films, 11 long and 8 short documentaries.
The 29th Carthage Film Festival opened in the new opera theatre of the Cité de la Culture, with a screening of Narjess Najjar’s Apatride. As well as the films in the official competition, audiences will be able to watch films in various parallel sections. One of these is for Tunisian productions, with a selection of 23 films produced between 2017 and 2018. The festival also honours Brazil, India, Iraq and Senegal, each of which has offered a dozen films reflecting the output of their country’s film industry.
Carthage Pro, a platform within the festival, has become an essential event for professionals. They will be invited to take part in 3 masterclasses plus an international conference about new methods of film finance. From November 5th to 7th, the Chabaka workshop offers an opportunity for film-makers and producers to meet each other. A new element this year is a grant for script development.
Sources: 2M, Tunis webdo
