Egypt ‘s acclaimed producer Marianne Khoury joins ACC Talks on Instagram

CAIRO - 25 August 2020: American film critic Jay Weissberg will join the weekly ACC Talks on Instagram to interview film producer Marianne Khoury (Let's Talk). The new episode will stream on Thursday, 27 August, at 06:00 PM (GMT) on the official instagram page of the Arab Cinema Center.

Streaming time of the ACC talks in Arab countries:

Palestine, Syria, KSA, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait - 09:00 PM

Egypt, Sudan - 08:00 PM

UAE - 10:00 PM

Tunisia - 07:00 PM

Morocco - 06:00 PM

Marianne Khoury is a distinct Egyptian director/producer. She made her directorial debut The Times of Laura in 1991, followed by her second film, Women who Loved Cinema (1992), then Zelal in 2010, which received critical acclaim and was an official selection at the Venice Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI at the Dubai International Film Festival and the RAI Broadcasting Award at RPIMED 2011. Her latest film, Let's Talk (2019), received Audience Award at the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

Khoury has multiple contributions with Egypt's most celebrated director Youssef Chahine as a co-producer on independent films that distinctively tapped on unprecedented themes in the Egyptian cinema. Through Misr International Films, Khoury established ZawyaCinema, Egypt's signature Art House theatre. She also introduced the first edition of Panorama of the European Film in Cairo in 2004, which screens key European films in the heart of Egypt. Khoury's efforts are constantly recognized as a conduit between artists and the cinema industry, with a special focus on the development and production of remarkable films by young Egyptian talents.

Jay Weissberg is a New York-based critic who lives in Rome. He has been reviewing films for the Entertainment industry trade paper, Variety, since 2003. A frequent participant of festival juries, he has traveledthroughout Europe, the Arab world and Latin America to cover film events. In October 2015, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, widely considered the premiere event of its type in the world. He was the co-curator for the Capellaniprogramme at Bologna’s Cinema Ritrovato, and is one of the organizers of the Ottoman Film Project. He has been a guest of the Harvard Film Archives/GulbenkianFoundation’s Cinema Dialogues, as well as acted as mentor in initiatives for young film critics.

The Arab Cinema Center (ACC) is a nonprofit organization registered in Amsterdam. The ACC is an international promotionalplatform 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 now available on the ACC's website, allowing users to obtain digital copies of the Arab Cinema Magazine, as well as 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.