The African, Asian and Latin American FF is glad to announce the 3rd year of the collaboration with the workshop FINAL CUT IN VENICE in the framework of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.
The Venice International Film Festival, in collaboration with the Festival International du Film d’Amiens and the Festival International de Films de Fribourg, presents the third edition of the workshop FINAL CUT IN VENICE, which will take place from September 7th to 8th 2015 as part of the Venice Film Market.

The African and Arabic films, all in post-production, selected for the third edition of Final Cut in Venice are:

ALI, THE GOAT AND IBRAHIM by Sherif ELBENDARY (Egypt, France) – work-in-progress copy: 44’
SYNOPSIS. Ali loses his fiancée Nada and refuses to accept her death. He believes she has been reincarnated as a goat. The neighbourhood gossip becomes unbearable and his mother drags Ali to a healer, who gives him some stones to throw into the sea off the two coasts of Egypt to lift the “curse”. While with the healer, Ali meets Ibrahim, a depressed sound engineer who hears “voices” he can’t understand. Ali, his goat and Ibrahim then set off on a walk of self-discovery that will seal the growing bond of friendship between them.

HOUSE IN THE FIELDS by Tala HADID (Morocco) – work-in-progress copy: 52’
SYNOPSIS. The film examines the life of an isolated rural Amazigh community in the south-west region of the High Atlas Mountains. The thousand-year history of the Amazigh in Morocco has been, for the most part, recounted, preserved and transmitted by bards and storytellers in oral form among Tamazight speaking pastoral communities. Tigmi Nigren continues this tradition of transmission, in an audio-visual form, in an attempt to faithfully document and present a portrait of a village and community that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years despite being confronted with the rapidly changing sociopolitical realities of the country at large. The film follows the lives of certain villagers, most specifically two teenage sisters, one who must give up school to prepare for her wedding, and the other who dreams of being a judge. The film is at once a tableau and an intimate portrait of a farming community at the crossroads of change, a portrayal of a vanishing way of life that not only is profoundly defined by the relation between man and nature, but also holds the key to an entire heritage of local dialects and culture.

PATH OF PARADISE by Atia Al-DARADJI (Iraq) – work-in-progress copy: 74’
SYNOPSIS. Distraught over the loss of his wife, Essa goes on a pilgrimage from Bassora to the holy city of Karbala in the attempt to find a miraculous cure for his daughter Maryam’s illness. The father and daughter meet many other pilgrims on the way, all going to the same place and all looking for their own miracle. Essa is quarrelsome and is not given to comforting Maryam, who can’t understand why her father is so cold. So she finds relief in learning the history of their spiritual journey. More and more pilgrims begin to flock towards Karbala and Essa and Maryam lose sight of one another among the thousands of walkers.

ROOSTERS OF BEIRUT by Ziad KALTHOUM (Syria, Lebanon) – work-in-progress copy: 44’
SYNOPSIS. In Lebanon, Syrian workers live like ants in underground pits. Each morning at sunrise, they climb the construction sites and with their first hammer stroke, they wake up the country. For this reason they are nicknamed “Beirut roosters.” A country they only know from a distance, being banned from moving around freely or swimming in its sea. And while the “Beirut roosters” rebuild the Lebanese houses, the war in Syria destroys their own homes. It is this war in Syria that leads to the encounter of Ziad, the director of this film who defected from the Syrian army to find refuge in Lebanon, and his fellow compatriots the Syrian workers in the city of Beirut; a city in which they share the same feeling of being alienated and unwanted and reduced to a negative Syrian identity by Lebanese society. Jointly, they share the pain and fear of losing their home country forever while being unable to construct a life in a city built on oblivion and resentment.

SEPARATION by Hakar ABDULQADIR (Iraq) – work-in-progress copy: 70’
SYNOPSIS. After fleeing their town, Shingal in Iraq, which is under siege from Isis, thousands of Yazidi Kurds find themselves without food or water at the top of Shingal mountain. Faced with no other choice, three men leave to seek sustenance for their families, unaware that an almost safe passage to Kurdistan has been recently opened. Destiny has thus separated these men from their loved ones. The documentary reveals the story of their wives and children who, having reached the refugee camp, remain anxiously awaiting news of their husbands, while at the same time learning to adapt to life in a new setting.

ZAINEB HATES THE SNOW by Kaouther BEN HANIA (Tunisia, France) – work-in-progress copy: 84’
SYNOPSIS. 2009. Zaineb, a nine-year-old Tunisian girl, has lost her father. Her mother tries to rebuild her life with another man in Canada. Zaineb has been told that when she gets there she will be able to see the snow at last! But in fact she wants nothing to do with this new man or his country, because she has decided to hate the snow. Following the life of this charismatic young Tunisian and her itinerant family over a five-year period, Zaineb takrahou ethelj is shot as a captivating and moving coming-of-age documentary told through the sharp eyes of a young migrant.

The Venice Film Festival intends to provide concrete support to complete films coming from African countries and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The Final Cut in Venice workshop consists in a two-day session during which the work-in-progress copies of the 6 selected films will be presented to producers, buyers, distributors and organizers of international film festivals, to facilitate their post-production process, promote possible co-production partnerships and access to the distribution market. There will be opportunities for networking, encounters and gatherings in which the directors and producers of the films can meet the participants in the workshop.

Final Cut in Venice is held in collaboration with Laser Film, Mactari Mixing Auditorium, CNC, Knightworks, Titra TVS, Sub-Ti Ltd, Rai Cinema, Festival International du Film d’Amiens, Festival International de Films de Fribourg, Institut Français and starting this year SANAD (Development and Post-Production Fund of twofour54 Abu Dhabi) and MAD Solutions.

The Prizes
The workshop will end with the award of prizes in kind or in cash, intended to provide financial support for the films during post-production. Two more prizes have been added this year:
• € 10,000 to support the cost of post production provided by SANAD film fund of Abu Dhabi;
• marketing, advertising and distribution in the Arab world offered by MAD Solutions for an Arab plan (with the exception of projects already covered by MAD Solutions).
Prizes from the last edition are confirmed:
· €15,000 euro for the color correction of a feature-length film offered by Laser Film (Rome) for up to 50 hours of work (technician included);
· Up to € 15,000 offered by Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) for the sound mixing;
· € 10,000 for post-production costs to be carried out in France, offered by CNC –Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (Paris);
· Up to € 10,000 for visual effects and special effects, offered by Knightworks;
· Up to € 10,000 for digital color correction, for the production of a DCP master and French or English subtitles, offered by Titra TVS (Paris);
· €10,000 for post-production costs offered by Abu Dhabi’s film fund SANAD.
· Up to € 6,000 for the production of a DCP master and the Italian or English subtitles, offered by Sub-Ti Ltd. (London).
· € 5,000 for the purchase of two-year broadcasting rights by Rai Cinema;
· A 35mm print (without subtitles) or the participation in the production costs of a DCP, offered by the Festival International du Film d’Amiens;
· A 35mm print (without subtitles) or the participation in the production costs of a DCP, offered by the Festival International de Films de Fribourg.
· Marketing, publicity and distribution in the Arab World for one Arab project is offered by MAD Solutions (except for projects already attached to MAD Solutions)

The prizes will be awarded at the discretion of the Director of the Venice Film Festival, assisted by the partners in the project, and the executives of the institutions and service companies underwriting the prizes. All decisions will be final.

FINAL CUT III: THE PALMARES

ALI, THE GOAT, AND IBRAHIM / ALI MEA’ZA WE IBRAHIM by Sherif Elbendary (Egypt) has been supported by:

• CNC – Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée (Paris) is giving € 10,000 to be spent on post-production in France
• Knightworks is giving up to € 10,000 for visual effects and special effects
• Titra TVS (Paris) is giving up to € 10,000 for digital colour correction, for the production of a DCP master and French or English  subtitles

HOUSE IN THE FIELDS / TIGMI NIGREN  by Tala Hadid  (Morocco) has been supported by:

• Laser Film (Rome) is giving € 15,000 for the colour correction, for up to 50 hours of work (technician included)
• Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) is giving a discount of € 15,000 for the sound mixing