Lagoonie Film Production accompanied the Arab Cinema Center's (ACC) caravan to the 69th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) along with 20 of its partners.
Engaging in a wide range of activities at the Berlinale this year, ACC's partners varied between film organizations and international film festivals. This year, the Berlinale witnessed the fifth anniversary of the ACC, where it was first launched to the world back in 2015.
The partners who accompanied the ACC to the Berlinale (in alphabetical order) are: Arab Film & Media Institute (AFMI) (USA), Arab Radio & Television (ART) (Saudi Arabia), Art City For Cinema and TV Production (Iraq), Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) (Egypt), Centre National du Cinema et de L'image (CNCI) (Tunisia), Eventival (Czech Republic), Festival Ciné Palestine (FCP) (France), Film Clinic(Egypt), FilmLab: Palestine (FLP) (Palestine), Lagoonie Film Production (Egypt), MAD Solutions (Egypt-UAE), Malaga Film Festival (Spain), Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF) (Sweden), Rotana Group (Saudi Arabia-Egypt), Rowad Media (Saudi Arabia), The Imaginarium Films (Jordan), The Producers (Egypt), The Royal Film Commission-Jordan (RFC) (Jordan), Tripoli Film Festival (Lebanon), and WIKA For Film Production and Distribution (Egypt).
During the festival, the ACC released the 10th edition of the Arab Cinema Magazine, which covers the ACC's achievements in the past years, along with a special section offering details on the Arab movie theater industry, including box-office statistics and the biggest movie theater chains. Besides, the new issue features an entire section covering everything about the upcoming edition of the Annual Critics Awards and the jury that is joined by new members, bringing 76 film critics from 34 countries together.
In September 2018, while attending the Venice International Film Festival as one of the partners of the Arab Cinema Center, Lagoonie Film Production announced the feature film project Certified Mail by director Hisham Saqr as winner of its monetary award, €5000, within the festival's Final Cut in Venice workshop. Lagoonie's award offers support to the film through its upcoming production stages.
Organized by MAD Solutions, this year the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) celebrates its fifth year since its inception in 2015. 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.
Lagoonie Film Production, Founded by Producer Shahinaz Elakkad in 2017, Lagoonie Film Production is an Egyptian company that aims to develop the film and TV industry in Egypt and the Arab world through making high-quality films and TV series that address non-mainstream topics to put the Arab film and TV industry on the international map. The company made its foray into the world of production with the big TV hit, Ana Shahira..Ana Al Kha'en, by renowned writer Nour Abdelmeguid. Their projects have varied from TV series to acclaimed shorts such as Fork and Knife by writer/director Adam Abdelghaffar.