Egypt’s critic Amal el-Gamal meets Abu BakrShawky on ACC Talks

CAIRO - 21 July 2020: Egyptian film critic Amal el-Gamal will meet with Egypt's award-winning director Abu Bakr Shawky on ACC Talks on July 23.

Streamed live on the Arab Cinema Center's (ACC) official Instagram page, the discussion will bring into focus Shawky's cinematic style and his award-winning film "Youmeddine", winner of Best Feature award at the Critics Awards for Arab Films in 2019.

Streaming time of the sixth episode of ACC talks in Arab countries:

Egypt, Sudan – 8 PM

UAE – 10 PM

Tunisia – 7 PM

Morocco - 6 PM

Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait – 9PM

The ACC Talks is a series of live weekly interviews where a jury member from The Critics Awards for Arab Films and The Arab Critics' Awards for European Films hosts international filmmakers.

These talks will be available with Arabic and English subtitles across the ACC’s social media accounts, as well as on its website, acc.film.

Abu Bakr Shawky is an Egyptian-Austrian writer/director, who is best known for his first feature "Youmeddine". He studied Political Science and filmmaking in Cairo, and studied Film Production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Grad Film Program. 

"Youmeddine", which was his graduation project at the New York-based school, landed world premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival to compete for the Palme d'Or. The film won the Francois Chalais Award, was Egypt's official submission for the 91st Academy Awards, and received the Best Feature award at the Critics Awards for Arab Films. 

The film also won Variety's MENA Talent of the Year Award at El Gouna Film Festival. Shawky was listed on the 101 Top Influential Arab Filmmakers, launched by the ACC's Arab Cinema Magazine.

Gamal is an Egyptian writer and film critic with 10 books about film criticism to her credit. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy in Film Criticism. In 2009, she won the Abdel Hai Adib Award at Alexandria Film Festival for her script of "Al-Shabaka", which was based on Sherif Hatata's book. 

She has been a jury member of many prestigious film festivals in Italy, Malmö, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait and Sudan. These festivals include El Gouna Film Festival, Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts, and Malmo Arab Film Festival. 

Also, Gamal has been selected many times to participate with her film studies in workshops at the University ofBonn, Germany. She is best known for her style that employs comparative criticism and symbolism. Her books on film criticism include "Women.. in Her Eyes", "Arab Film Co-production", "Filmography", "Killers between Hemingway and Tarkovsky", "Nawal Sadawyand Sherif Hatata", and "Cinematic Language in Literature: A Comparative Study between Tarkovsky and Sherif Hatata" among others.

The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a nonprofit organization registered in Amsterdam. The ACC is an international promotional platform for Arab cinema as it provides the filmmaking industry with a professional window to connect with their counterparts from all over the world through a number of events that it organizes.

The ACC also provides networking opportunities with representatives of companies and institutions specialized in co-production and international distribution, among others. The ACC's activities vary between film markets, stands, and pavilions, networking sessions and one-on-one meetings bringing together Arab and foreign filmmakers, welcome parties, as well as meetings with international organizations and festivals, and the issuance of the Arab Cinema Magazine to be distributed at the leading international film festivals and markets.

​Furthermore, newsletter subscription is available on the ACC's website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine, news on the ACC's activities, notifications of application dates for grants, festivals and offers from educational and training institutions, updates on Arab films participating at festivals, exclusive news on the Arab Cinema LAB, and highlights from the ACC's partners and their future projects.

The ACC also launched an English-language Arab Cinema Guide, available on its website, which is a comprehensive cinematic guide that comprises a variety of tools presented collectively for the first time to offer information on Arab cinema to filmmakers inside and outside of the Arab world. It also aims to facilitate filmmakers' access to international markets and help film industry representatives to easily identify Arab film productions.