Cannes Film Festival

• RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Saudi Cultural Development Fund (CDF) has launched the Film Investment Program with a budget of SR 300 million under the Film Sector Financing Initiative, which has a total budget of SR 879 million as part of the Digital Content Program IGNITE.
• The investment program was announced during the Cannes Film Festival, which is currently taking place in France from May 16 to 27.
• CDF has also called on both local and international investors to collaborate on supporting CDF's efforts to invest in the film sector.
• The total budget allocated to the Film Sector Financing Initiative is the highest among all art and cultural initiatives in KSA.

• Ma was the first person in China to live stream in counters of international cosmetic and beauty brands in department stores and shopping malls.
• His live-streaming room - the "Ma Shuai x Super Brands Douyin Live-streaming Room" - has now become an outlet for multiple international beauty brands looking to reach Chinese consumers.
• "During our stay in France, we were invited to visit Sephora's headquarters and the laboratories and manufacturing plant of Clarins.
• "Through the 'Ma Shuai x Super Brands Douyin Live-streaming Room', we want to let more Chinese consumers experience the charm of French brands."

• The Mali-born director has been announced as this year’s recipient of the Carrosse d’Or (the Golden Coach) award.
• David Murphy, a critic and scholar of African cinema and Cissé’s work, told us more about why his films are so important – and particularly his classic Yeelen.

Who is Souleymane Cissé?

• He was born in Bamako in 1940 but his childhood was spent in Dakar, Senegal, then a neighbouring colony in the French west African empire.
• His father had moved there for work before returning to Mali after independence in 1960.
• Then again, it has never been easy to build a career as a director in Africa (outside Nigeria’s Nollywood video industry at least).

Where does he fit into African cinema history?

• Yeelen was heralded not only as a critical breakthrough for African cinema on the international stage but also as the epitome of a new form of African film-making practice embedded in the oral narrative traditions and spirituality of west Africa.
• A beautifully shot film, Yeelen tells a mythical and highly symbolic story that pits a rebellious son against his tyrannical father.
• This new film style was cast in opposition to the social realism that many critics saw as the defining feature of Francophone west African cinema in the 1960s and 1970s.

What is your view of this history then?

• In fact, it was not even the dominant aesthetic of the work of Sembène, with whom it was most closely associated by critics.
• Cissé sets out his artistic beliefs in Cambodian director Rithy Panh’s beautiful 1991 documentary, Souleymane Cissé.
• He describes the inspiration for his films as an almost dreamlike, visionary process, but one firmly based in reality.

Why does this award matter?

• Previous awardees include celebrated western directors, including Martin Scorcese and Jane Campion, but also Cissé’s cinematic hero, Sembène.
• Here’s hoping the award will prompt more film lovers to discover his classic movies.

• LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Alien in the Mirror: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Glazer and Under the Skin is now available on Audible , read by author Maureen Foster.
• Glazer's new film The Zone of Interest, shot on location in Auschwitz, Poland and based on the best seller by Martin Amis, will have its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, May 16-27.
• Foster's book, also available in paperback , is a deep dive into Glazer's 2014 science fiction thriller, Under the Skin.
• Foster also interviewed film editor Paul Watts and sound designer Johnnie Burn, both of whom worked on Glazer's new The Zone of Interest.