“Voices Amplified”: A New Partnership Between Malmö Arab Film Festival and the Royal Film Commission – Jordan in the Field of Training
Malmö, 1 July 2021
Malmö Arab Film Festival (MAFF) announces its latest partnerships aimed at training filmmakers in the Arab world. The festival is cooperating with the Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC), with the support of the Swedish Institute, to organize a new training program entitled “Voices Amplified” project for producing short narratives. The project will take place from September 2021 to February 2022 in Amman, Jordan.
Through the project, four short narrative projects will be selected to participate in the “Voices Amplified” project to tell stories around the theme of “Cultural Heritage”.
The project aims to build the filmmaking capabilities of the participants throughout the different stages. It will also provide them with mentorship for script development, production and post-production by professional Swedish and Jordanian filmmakers.
To complete the production of the four selected short narratives and to publicly screen the films in Jordan, “Amplified Voices” will grant 4,000 Jordanian dinars for each project.
At a later stage, the RFC and MAFF will resume their cooperation in the same project to produce four short documentary films.
Mouhamad Keblawi, Founder and President of Malmö Arab Film Festival commented: “We at the Malmö Arab Film Festival are proud of the cooperation with the Royal Film Commission – Jordan, and this is not the first cooperation, as the festival has previously worked, but briefly, with the Commission in three important projects, with funding from the Swedish Institute. Today, through the “Amplified Voices” project, this cooperation will take its best form and result in the production of eight short films, which will be hosted at two future editions of the festival. This project will give an opportunity to see stories we have not seen before from Jordan’s various Governorates and will contribute to building the capacity of young people across Jordan in the art of filmmaking. We are very happy to be part of this project.”
Mohannad Al-Bakri, the RFC’s Managing Director, stressed the importance of local, regional and international partnerships in raising the level of the training programs organized by the Commission in the field of filmmaking, and thus the quality of the produced films through the various workshops.
He added: “We value our partnership with the Malmö Arab Film Festival and the support of the Swedish Institute. The importance of this partnership stems from the prestigious status of this festival; it is considered one of the most important Arab film festivals in Europe and the only festival in Scandinavia that highlights cinema and talents from the Arab region. Providing a platform through the festival’s 12th edition, where films that tell our Jordanian stories and reflect our cultural heritage will be screened to an international audience, is a great support for local talents.”
Malmö Arab Film Festival is the largest and most famous Arab film festival in Europe and the only one in the Scandinavian countries. Since its founding in 2011, MAFF took major steps towards offering a panoramic view over the Arab social and political situation and conducting constructive dialogues for both professionals and the public. The festival’s goal is to build bridges between cultures based on film as a universal visual language, capable of imitating the diversity of human dimension.
Over the course of its previous 11 editions, MAFF has entered many partnerships with film institutions in the Arab world and the Nordic countries, whether they are official governmental institutions, or NGOs aiming to spread cinematic culture and support filmmakers and critics everywhere in the world.
Applications to the “Amplified Voices” project are open.
For more information, please visit the website: www.film.jo, or contact the Royal Film Commission – Jordan at: workshops@film.jo
