Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays is among the seven selected projects for the 11th edition of Venice Final Cut, supporting work-in-progress films from Africa and the Middle East.
The programme, which runs as part of Venice Film Festival’s production bridge, has selected four fiction and three documentary projects to be screened to producers, distributors, buyers, post-production companies and programmers during the three-day workshop in Venice (September 3-5).
Happy Holidays follows a student whose double life is exposed when she gets involved in a minor accident. It’s a co-production between Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar and Italy. Copti’s 2009 film Ajami was nominated for an Oscar in best international feature film as well as collecting several prominent accolades on the festival circuit.
Also selected is Rama Tiaw’s new documentary Zion Music about African Reggae music which is a co-production between Senegal, The Ivory Coast and Germany. Tiaw directed 2016 documentary The Revolution Won’t Be Televised which picked up the critics award in Berlin’s forum strand.
Once the projects have been screened, the filmmakers will be able to participate in one-to-one meetings with relevant industry professionals before the programme concludes with an awards ceremony. Prizes range from €2,500-€15,000 in cash or services from various organisations to help towards the post-production of the projects.
The programme will be supported by the Red Sea International Film Festival for the second year running.
Venice Final Cut 2023
Fiction
Allah is Not Obliged (Fr-Lux-Bel-Can-US-Slovakia)
dir. Zaven Najjar
Carissa (S Afr)
dirs. Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar
Happy Holidays (Palestine-Ger-Fr-Qat-It)
dir. Scandar Copti
Life Is A Railroad (Congo-Fr-Ger)
dirs. Kevin Mavakala, Manassé Kashala, Tousmy Kilo, Isaac Sahani
Documentary
Sudan, When Poems Fall Apart (Fr-Tunisia)
dir. Hind Meddeb
She Was Not Alone (Iraq-Saudi Arabia)
Dir. Hussein Al-Asadi
Zion Music (Senegal-Ivory Coast-Ger)
dir. Rama Tiaw
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