Author: <span>Fouad</span>

In this exclusive interview we talk to Tom Sherak, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (best known for their Academy Awards, also referred to as “Oscars”). We look at the role of film in society and how it has grown to become such a ubiquitous art. We discuss what makes a ‘great’ movie, some history of film, the economics and future of the industry, and how the internet and other technologies such as CGI and 3D have affected the movie business.

Film has a uniquely powerful ubiquity within human culture. In 2009, across major territories, there were over 6.8 billion cinema admissions (compared against a world population of roughly the same number) creating global box office revenues of over US$30 billion. The convergent nature of film creates consumption across a number of channels. In the same year combined DVD and Blu-Ray sales in the United States, Canada and European Union alone were US$32.5 billion (amounting to over 1.1 billion units sold). When you start to then consider revenues and audience figures from those who consume digitally, via television, repeat view content they already own and view through the highly illegal but vast black-market in films, the figures become truly staggering.

The direct economic impact of film is clear, but the effect to the wider economy is also significant. The UK House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee– in a 2002 report on The British Film Industry stated, “…Of the 23 million people who visited the UK in 2001 — spending approximately £11.3billion — VisitBritain (formerly the British Tourist Authority) estimates that approximately 20% visited the UK because of the way it is portrayed in films or on television. The flow-on effect from film (i.e. the use of services and purchase of goods by the industry) is thought to be that for every £1 spent on film, there is a £1.50 benefit to the economy.”

Cinema has become a powerful vehicle for culture, education, leisure and propaganda. In a 1963 report for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization looking at Indian Cinema and Culture, the author (Baldoon Dhingra) quoted a speech by Prime Minister Nehru who stated, “…the influence in India of films is greater than newspapers and books combined.” Even at this early stage in cinema, the Indian film-market catered for over 25 million people a week- considered to be just a ‘fringe’ of the population.

Source : ThoughtEconomics 

Marrakech, November 29, 2018. A rain of stars is once again going to illuminate the sky of the Red City on the occasion of the 17th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, which opens this Friday, November 30. As it has every year since 2001, the red carpet of the prestigious event will witness some of the biggest names in international cinema, among them actors, directors and versatile artists from all around the world. Festival audiences will have the opportunity to see some of the most glamorous actors of international cinema. Italian star Monica Bellucci will be on the red carpet and on Jamaa El Fna Square at the public screening of the celebrated Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra. Egyptian film diva and muse of the great director Youssef Chahine, Yousra also confirms her presence in Marrakech, along with Italian actor, director and producer Valeria Golino, who has appeared opposite big-screen greats, among them Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. On the male side, famous international cinema figures are coming to meet the public of Marrakech. Among them are Danish-American actor Viggo Mortensen, who delivers a breathtaking performance in Peter Farrelly’s Green Book; French actor, Gaspard Ulliel, who incarnated Yves Saint Laurent in Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent; Mexican international star and director Gael García Bernal, who appears in the Festival in Gonzalo Tobal’s The Accused; actor Gilles Lellouche, who directed the delightful comedy The Big Bath; and Swiss actor, director and screenwriter Vincent Perez. For the 17th edition of the MIFF, Moroccan cinema will be honoured through the presence of several talented actors and directors, such as Faouzi  Bensaïdi, actor and director of Volubilis; Narjiss Nejjar, director of for  Stateless; Meryem Ben M’Barek with her wonderful Sofia; the director of Marock and Rock the Casbah, Laïla Marrakchi; Hicham Lasri, a director of singular style; alongside actors Younès Bouab, Saïd Bey and Ayoub  Layoussifi, who will present Urgent; and Mohcine Malzi, who received the Male Performance Award at the most recent Tangier International Film Festival. Other famous figures of the big screen like Abdallah Ferkous, originating from the city, and the very popular Aziz Dadas, will meet their very large public at the Place Jamaa El Fna and on the red carpet. The red carpet will also host Egyptian stars Laila Eloui and Bassem Samra, the superb French-Italian actress Chiara Mastroianni, and Rossy de Palma, the Spanish actor and muse of Pedro Almodovar.

Nadine Labaki, the celebrated Lebanese actor, director and screenwriter, returns to Marrakech to present her latest hit film, Capernaum. Other highly anticipated figures on this year’s red carpet are Sandrine Kiberlain, the graceful actir and French singer; Sarah Perles, a young Moroccan actor noted for her role in Sofia; Maïwenn, the French director and actor who triumphed with films like Polisse and Le Bal des actrices; as well as French actor Aure Atika, who was seen last year in En attendant les hirondelles by Karim Moussaoui.

The 17th edition of the MIFF offers a warm welcome to the Mauritanian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Abderrahmane Sissako, who won the César Award for Best Director for Timbuktu; US painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, whose most recent film At Eternity’s Gate opens the festival this year; actor, comedian, director, and stalwart of French comedy Laurent Lafitte; French actor Tahar Rahim, who delivered an unforgettable performance in Jacques Audiard’s Prophète; Laurence Fishburne, the US actor of hit films such as the Matrix trilogy; JR, the contemporary French artist known for his giant photographic installations around the world, who codirected the film Faces Places with Agnès Varda; Kevin Dillon, the US actor who has worked with Oliver Stone and is also known from the hit series “Entourage”; and French actor Mathieu Demy, who has been seen in the films of André Téchiné and Céline Sciamma.

Source : festival marrakech