Cinema of Lebanon
Encyclopedia
Cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian, Roy Armes, was the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced over 500 films.
By the mid 1920s cinemas were common in Beirut, and some where used as a place for political gatherings. For example in 1925, the Communist Party met at the Crystal Cinema in Beirut. Cinemas had become so popular that in 1931, students marched in a protest, demanding that prices of movie tickets be lowered. To compete against Hollywood, France decreed that all American films that were being imported to Lebanon be dubbed into French.
Documentaries were also being made during this period, but they were heavily censored by the French.
, the financial center of the eastern Mediterranean. The economic success with the presence of 38 banks along with its open, multi-cultural and liberal society made Lebanon an alternative production choice to Egypt that was at the time the center of filmmaking in the Arabic-speaking world. Additionally, "Lebanon had the region's best technical facilities" for film production. For the first half of the twentieth century, Lebanese cinema was very closely associated with Egyptian cinema. In addition to exporting numerous Lebanese actors and actresses, such as Nour Al Hoda and Sabah (singer)
, belly dancers like Badia Massabni and producers like Assia Dagher
, Lebanese distributors monopolized export of Egyptian film from 1930s – 1970s. One of the most successful directors of this period was Mohamed Selmane who was trained in Egypt and returned to Lebanon to make 30 films in 25 years.
Co-productions with Egypt and Syria were common in this period, which was considered the "Golden Age" of the Lebanese film industry. Additionally, Lebanese producers from 1945 up to 1951 played an influential role in the first stages of production of Iraqi cinema.
The first Lebanese film to represent Lebanon at the Cannes Film Festival
was Georges Nasser's Ila Ayn? in 1958.
The film industry continued to prosper in the 1960s with Beirut rivaling Cairo’s dominance of Arab filmmaking; however, films produced in the sixties, for the most part, lacked a sense of national identity and were merely commercial films, targeting a pan-Arab audience. The musicals of the Rahbani Brothers that starred Fairuz
were an exception. The Rahbani films were centered around nostalgic themes of life in Mount Lebanon
villages. While many films in the sixties were filmed in the Egyptian vernacular to cater to the large Egyptian market, the Rahbani films were filmed in the Lebanese dialect. One of the Rahbani films,Safar Barlik, which was set in 1912, depicted Lebanon's struggle against the Ottoman occupation. The film became a staple rerun on Lebanese television, especially on Independence Day.
Lebanon was also a filming location for international productions. For example, in 1965, Val Guest's Where the Spies Are, starring David Niven and Françoise Dorléac, was filmed in Beirut. Twenty-Four Hours to Kill, starring Mickey Rooney
, and Secret Agent Fire Ball, starring Richard Harrison, were also filmed in Beirut the same year. The following year in 1966, the German director, Manfred R. Köhler, filmed his film, Agent 505 - Todesfalle Beirut. George Lautner's La grande sauterelle was also filmed in Beirut in 1967. Rebus, starring Ann-Margret
was filmed on location at the Casino du Liban
in 1969. While Honeybaby, Honeybaby was shot in 1974 in Beirut, the producers of The Man with the Golden Gun, which was partially set in Beirut, decided not to film in the Lebanese capital due to the burgeoning political problems.
Beirut hosted the first international film festival in the Arab world in 1971. Until the mid-1970s, the film industry in Lebanon was flourishing with market appeal that extended to neighboring Arabic-speaking countries. Lebanon was producing "a string of sexually indulgent films" such as Cats of Hamra Street and The Guitar of Love in 1973, starring Georgina Rizk
, the Lebanese beauty queen who won Miss Universe in 1971. Cinema attendance during the 1970s in Lebanon was also the highest among Arabic-speaking countries.
One of the most important directors to emerge during this period was Maroun Baghdadi. According to Lina Khatib, author of Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond, Baghdadi's films were "considered the cornerstone of Lebanese cinema". Maroun Baghdadi made Little Wars (film)
with aid provided by the American filmmaker, Francis Coppola. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard
section at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival
. The film also screened at New York Film Festival on October 2, 1982.
Documentaries by filmmakers like Jocelyn Saab who "adopted a mainly journalistic style" also developed rapidly and successfully during this period. Lebanese and Palestinian documentaries produced in Lebanon during the 1970s caused a surge of documentary production across the Arab world. These documentaries contributed to the development of feature film production in the early eighties.
Many filmmakers from this era, such as Jocelyn Saab, Jean Chamoun, Randa Chahal and Maroun Baghdadi, settled in France due to the prolonged conflict in Lebanon.
Beirut: The Last Home Movie
is a 1987 documentary film that was directed by Jennifer Fox and shot on location at the historic Bustros mansion in Beirut. The documentary, which told the story of one of Lebanon’s wealthiest families, was awarded the Excellence In Cinematography Award and won the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival.
In addition to the wave of festival films and documentaries, a series of commercial films, mostly mimicking action B movie
s from Hollywood, were made in the early 1980s.
Financing of film production in Lebanon in this period was mainly dependent on foreign support, both European and from the Lebanese diaspora.
Many films, such as Jocelyne Saab's experimental film, Once Upon a Time in Beirut, examined the destruction that was left after the war. Maroun Baghdadi's Beyrouth Hors la Vie won the Special Jury Prize at Canned in 1991. Other's like Jean-Claude Codsi's Histoire d'un retoure examined the issue of returning to the country after years of exile and war. In 1994, Codsi's film won the jury award at the Festival international du film Francophone de Namur in Belgium. While many films produced in the 1990s were hits at international festivals, Lebanese viewers were not drawn to the mainly-war themed films. An exception was West Beirut (film)
(1998), which was a local and an international hit. It was not only the first Lebanese film, but also the first Arabic-language film to have general release in America.
In 1997, Youssef Chahine's French-produced film, Destiny, was shot on location in Lebanon, including the historic mountain town of in Beiteddine.
's The Kite (film) examined the issue of families separated due to the occupied territories in southern Lebanon. Her film won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s The Perfect Day (2005) examined the social implications of political kidnappings that happened during the war.
By 2004, film production was on the increase with four fiction and two documentaries produced. New themes that did not necessary deal with the issue of war emerged, like Danielle Arbid’s In the Battlefields (2005) that critiqued patriarchal society.
Short film production, especially by the graduates of the film schools in Lebanon, was also on the increase and receiving local and international attention. Hany Tamba's After Shave (2005 film) won the César Award for best short film in 2006.
2007 was an important year for Lebanese filmmaking when two female directors, Nadine Labaki
and Danielle Arbid
presented their films at the Cannes Film Festival. Labaki presented Caramel while Arbid presented A Lost Man. A Lost Man is possibly the most sexually graphic film ever made by an Arab director. Caramel enjoyed an international release, including in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Argentina.
, "The Fifth Column,"
a short film in Western Armenian dialect that won the third-place Cinéfondation Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Also in 2010, Carlos, a Canal+
production that starred Édgar Ramírez as well as a handful of Lebanese stars such as Razane Jammal, Rodney El Haddad, Antoine Balabane, Ahmad Kaabour, Talal El-Jordi and Badih Abou Chakra was shot on location in Lebanon. Carlos, which screened out of competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival won the 2010 Golden Globe award for the Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Increase in film production was evident in 2011. Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now? won the Prix Francois Chalais at Cannes. The film also won the people's choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as the audience award at the Films from the South
Festival in Oslo
, Norway
. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the American rights to the film.. The film was Lebanon's choice to compete in the Academy Award's "Best Foreign-Language Film" category. The film also won the Byarad d'Or at the Festival international du film Francophone de Namur in Belgium and the Doha Tribeca Film Festival's Best Narrative Film award.
Circumstance
, a film by Maryam Keshavarz that explored homosexuality in modern Iran, was filmed entirely on location in Beirut.
In the summer of 2011, the city of Beirut participated in the 48 Hour Film Project
for the first time where 24 teams competed. Cyril Aris won the Best Film category for his short, "Anoesis," which will be Beirut's entry in Filmapalooza 2012, the final festival for the 2011 48 Hour Film Project.
Danielle Arbid's filmed her third feature, Beirut Hotel, which had a world premiere at the 64th Locarno Film Festival in August of 2011.
Mounir Maasri's Rue Huvelin, which was set in 1990, told the story of seven Saint Joseph University students from Beirut's Rue Huvelin
during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Né à Beyrouth produced the film.
Jean-Claude Codsi filmed his second feature, A Man of Honor, which was produced by Michel Ghosn and premiered at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival on October 28, 2011.
Also in 2011, Celine Abiad's Beiroots Productions presented a different perspective of Mediterranean filmmaking by producing and experimental surrealist film (5.1 Dolby surround), shot in 35mm and fully produced in Lebanon: A Play Entitled Sehnsucht, written and directed by Badran Roy Badran. The film was picked up for international distribution at Cannes, by Albany Films International, a company dedicated to the promotion of art house and indie films from gifted and promising directors.
Documentary filmmaking was also present in 2011. Rania Stephan won "Best Documentary Filmmaker" at the Doha Tribecca Film Festival for The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosny . It's All in Lebanon, a documentary film directed by Wissam Charaf and produced by Né à Beyrouth Production, premiered at DIFF in 2011.
French Mandate
The first feature, The Adventures of Elias Mabruk, was filmed in Lebanon in 1929 and directed by Jordano Pidutti. In the Ruins of Baalbeck (1936) was the first sound film. It was a hit with audiences and profitable.By the mid 1920s cinemas were common in Beirut, and some where used as a place for political gatherings. For example in 1925, the Communist Party met at the Crystal Cinema in Beirut. Cinemas had become so popular that in 1931, students marched in a protest, demanding that prices of movie tickets be lowered. To compete against Hollywood, France decreed that all American films that were being imported to Lebanon be dubbed into French.
Documentaries were also being made during this period, but they were heavily censored by the French.
Post-Independence
After Lebanon gained its independence from France, filmmakers began to examine local themes, especially rural life and folklore. During the post-independence period, Lebanon witnessed an economic boom that made its capital BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, the financial center of the eastern Mediterranean. The economic success with the presence of 38 banks along with its open, multi-cultural and liberal society made Lebanon an alternative production choice to Egypt that was at the time the center of filmmaking in the Arabic-speaking world. Additionally, "Lebanon had the region's best technical facilities" for film production. For the first half of the twentieth century, Lebanese cinema was very closely associated with Egyptian cinema. In addition to exporting numerous Lebanese actors and actresses, such as Nour Al Hoda and Sabah (singer)
Sabah (singer)
Sabah , Wadi Chahrour, Lebanon is a Lebanese singer and actress.She has released over 50 albums and has acted in 98 movies, as well as 20 stage plays...
, belly dancers like Badia Massabni and producers like Assia Dagher
Assia Dagher
Assia Dagher was a Lebanese actress and film producer. She lived in Egypt.-Biography:Dagher was born in Lebanon in 1912. She moved to Cairo with her sister Mary, and niece Mary Queeny. She stayed with Asaad Dagher, her cousin, who was a writer and journalist at the famous Al-Ahram newspaper. She...
, Lebanese distributors monopolized export of Egyptian film from 1930s – 1970s. One of the most successful directors of this period was Mohamed Selmane who was trained in Egypt and returned to Lebanon to make 30 films in 25 years.
Co-productions with Egypt and Syria were common in this period, which was considered the "Golden Age" of the Lebanese film industry. Additionally, Lebanese producers from 1945 up to 1951 played an influential role in the first stages of production of Iraqi cinema.
The first Lebanese film to represent Lebanon at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
was Georges Nasser's Ila Ayn? in 1958.
The film industry continued to prosper in the 1960s with Beirut rivaling Cairo’s dominance of Arab filmmaking; however, films produced in the sixties, for the most part, lacked a sense of national identity and were merely commercial films, targeting a pan-Arab audience. The musicals of the Rahbani Brothers that starred Fairuz
Fairuz
Nouhad Wadi Haddad , famously known as Fairuz is a Lebanese singer who is widely considered to be the most famous living singer in the Arab world and one of the best known of all time...
were an exception. The Rahbani films were centered around nostalgic themes of life in Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...
villages. While many films in the sixties were filmed in the Egyptian vernacular to cater to the large Egyptian market, the Rahbani films were filmed in the Lebanese dialect. One of the Rahbani films,Safar Barlik, which was set in 1912, depicted Lebanon's struggle against the Ottoman occupation. The film became a staple rerun on Lebanese television, especially on Independence Day.
Lebanon was also a filming location for international productions. For example, in 1965, Val Guest's Where the Spies Are, starring David Niven and Françoise Dorléac, was filmed in Beirut. Twenty-Four Hours to Kill, starring Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, and Secret Agent Fire Ball, starring Richard Harrison, were also filmed in Beirut the same year. The following year in 1966, the German director, Manfred R. Köhler, filmed his film, Agent 505 - Todesfalle Beirut. George Lautner's La grande sauterelle was also filmed in Beirut in 1967. Rebus, starring Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...
was filmed on location at the Casino du Liban
Casino du Liban
Casino du Liban is a casino located in Maameltein, Jounieh in Lebanon and is 22 km north of Beirut.With an area of about 35,000 square meters, the casino has around 400 slot machines and 60 gaming tables. It has a showroom, night club, theater, banquet facility and five restaurants. The casino was...
in 1969. While Honeybaby, Honeybaby was shot in 1974 in Beirut, the producers of The Man with the Golden Gun, which was partially set in Beirut, decided not to film in the Lebanese capital due to the burgeoning political problems.
Beirut hosted the first international film festival in the Arab world in 1971. Until the mid-1970s, the film industry in Lebanon was flourishing with market appeal that extended to neighboring Arabic-speaking countries. Lebanon was producing "a string of sexually indulgent films" such as Cats of Hamra Street and The Guitar of Love in 1973, starring Georgina Rizk
Georgina Rizk
Georgina Rizk was Lebanon's first and so far only Miss Universe.Rizk was born in Beirut to a Christian household. She was crowned in the Miss Universe pageant in 1971 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA. She was the first woman from the Middle East and the fourth woman from Asia to win the title...
, the Lebanese beauty queen who won Miss Universe in 1971. Cinema attendance during the 1970s in Lebanon was also the highest among Arabic-speaking countries.
The War Years
Despite the war, there was an "emergence of a new wave of Lebanese filmmakers – fostering, unusually, equal numbers of women and men". Some of the filmmakers who emerged during this period were "Maroun Baghdadi, Jocelyn Saab, Borhane Alaouié, Heiny Srour, Randa Shahal Sabbag" and Jean Chamoun. In the 1970s, film themes in Lebanon were concentrated around the political conflicts that the country was undergoing. Displacement was also a recurrent theme as evident in Borhane Alaouie's Beirut, the Encounter (1981). Films of this period were characterized by a lack of closure, reflective of the seemingly endless war at the time.One of the most important directors to emerge during this period was Maroun Baghdadi. According to Lina Khatib, author of Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond, Baghdadi's films were "considered the cornerstone of Lebanese cinema". Maroun Baghdadi made Little Wars (film)
Little Wars (film)
Little Wars is a 1982 French-Lebanese war film directed by Maroun Bagdadi. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival...
with aid provided by the American filmmaker, Francis Coppola. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
section at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival
1982 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Giorgio Strehler *Jean-Jacques Annaud *Suso Cecchi d'Amico *Geraldine Chaplin *Gabriel García Márquez *Florian Hopf *Sidney Lumet *Mrinal Sen...
. The film also screened at New York Film Festival on October 2, 1982.
Documentaries by filmmakers like Jocelyn Saab who "adopted a mainly journalistic style" also developed rapidly and successfully during this period. Lebanese and Palestinian documentaries produced in Lebanon during the 1970s caused a surge of documentary production across the Arab world. These documentaries contributed to the development of feature film production in the early eighties.
Many filmmakers from this era, such as Jocelyn Saab, Jean Chamoun, Randa Chahal and Maroun Baghdadi, settled in France due to the prolonged conflict in Lebanon.
Beirut: The Last Home Movie
Beirut: The Last Home Movie
Beirut: The Last Home Movie is a 1987 documentary film directed by Jennifer Fox. It follows the life of Gaby Bustros and her family, who live in in a 200-year old mansion in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War...
is a 1987 documentary film that was directed by Jennifer Fox and shot on location at the historic Bustros mansion in Beirut. The documentary, which told the story of one of Lebanon’s wealthiest families, was awarded the Excellence In Cinematography Award and won the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival.
In addition to the wave of festival films and documentaries, a series of commercial films, mostly mimicking action B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s from Hollywood, were made in the early 1980s.
Post-War Revival
After the war, Beirut reemerged as one of the centers of mass media production in the Arab world. While media production was concentrated around television, there were attempts to revive the film industry in Lebanon, especially by fresh graduates of Lebanese film schools. While filmmaking schools are a rarity in the region, by the mid-1990s, six of Beirut's universities were offering degrees in cinema and television and that attracted an influx of students from Arab countries who chose to receive some or all of their media training in Lebanon.Financing of film production in Lebanon in this period was mainly dependent on foreign support, both European and from the Lebanese diaspora.
Many films, such as Jocelyne Saab's experimental film, Once Upon a Time in Beirut, examined the destruction that was left after the war. Maroun Baghdadi's Beyrouth Hors la Vie won the Special Jury Prize at Canned in 1991. Other's like Jean-Claude Codsi's Histoire d'un retoure examined the issue of returning to the country after years of exile and war. In 1994, Codsi's film won the jury award at the Festival international du film Francophone de Namur in Belgium. While many films produced in the 1990s were hits at international festivals, Lebanese viewers were not drawn to the mainly-war themed films. An exception was West Beirut (film)
West Beirut (film)
West Beirut is a 1998 Lebanese drama film written and directed by Ziad Doueiri.-Plot:In April 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Muslim-Christian line and is divided into East and West Beirut. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar...
(1998), which was a local and an international hit. It was not only the first Lebanese film, but also the first Arabic-language film to have general release in America.
In 1997, Youssef Chahine's French-produced film, Destiny, was shot on location in Lebanon, including the historic mountain town of in Beiteddine.
The New Millennium
A mélange of local issues and Western aesthetics characterized this period of Lebanese filmmaking. Films in this period gained domestic appeal where many films were not only commercially successful as evident in box-office sales of Bosta, Caramel, Stray Bullet, and Where Do We Go Now? but also were able to compete with imported, American films. Funding of films remained reliant on European organizations, such as Fonds Sud Cinéma in France and Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Philippe Aractingi's Bosta (film) is one of the few films that was completely funded locally.2000s
In 2003, Randa ChahalRanda Chahal
Randa Chahal Sabbag also written Sabbagh, , was a Lebanese film director, producer and screen-writer born to an Iraqi mother and Lebanese father....
's The Kite (film) examined the issue of families separated due to the occupied territories in southern Lebanon. Her film won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige’s The Perfect Day (2005) examined the social implications of political kidnappings that happened during the war.
By 2004, film production was on the increase with four fiction and two documentaries produced. New themes that did not necessary deal with the issue of war emerged, like Danielle Arbid’s In the Battlefields (2005) that critiqued patriarchal society.
Short film production, especially by the graduates of the film schools in Lebanon, was also on the increase and receiving local and international attention. Hany Tamba's After Shave (2005 film) won the César Award for best short film in 2006.
2007 was an important year for Lebanese filmmaking when two female directors, Nadine Labaki
Nadine Labaki
Nadine Labaki is a Lebanese actress and director. She is one of the well known directors in the Arabic music video industry...
and Danielle Arbid
Danielle Arbid
Danielle Arbid , born 26 April 1970 in Beirut, is a Lebanese film director. She left her country at the age of 17 to study literature in Paris. In 1997 she started making films. Interested in different narrative forms, her work alternates between fiction, first person documentaries and video...
presented their films at the Cannes Film Festival. Labaki presented Caramel while Arbid presented A Lost Man. A Lost Man is possibly the most sexually graphic film ever made by an Arab director. Caramel enjoyed an international release, including in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Argentina.
2010s
In 2010, Muriel Abourouss won the best director of photography award for Georges Hachem's Stray Bullet (2010 film) at the Festival international du film Francophone de Namur in Belgium. Vatche Boulghourjian filmed on location in Bourj HammoudBourj Hammoud
Bourj Hammoud is a suburb in North-East Beirut, Lebanon in the Metn district. The suburb is heavily populated by Armenians as it is where most survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled...
, "The Fifth Column,"
The Fifth Column (film)
The Fifth Column , is a Lebanese–American short film, directed by Vatche Boulghourjian. It competed in the 2010 Cannes Film Festival where it was awarded 3rd Prize by the Cinéfondation, La Sélection. In August 2010 it was presented at the opening night of the Lebanese Film Festival in Beirut where...
a short film in Western Armenian dialect that won the third-place Cinéfondation Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Also in 2010, Carlos, a Canal+
Canal+
Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...
production that starred Édgar Ramírez as well as a handful of Lebanese stars such as Razane Jammal, Rodney El Haddad, Antoine Balabane, Ahmad Kaabour, Talal El-Jordi and Badih Abou Chakra was shot on location in Lebanon. Carlos, which screened out of competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival won the 2010 Golden Globe award for the Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.
Increase in film production was evident in 2011. Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now? won the Prix Francois Chalais at Cannes. The film also won the people's choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as the audience award at the Films from the South
Films from the South
Films from the South Festival is an international movie festival held annually in Oslo, Norway. Movies from Africa, Asia, and Latin-America are shown. The festival has its origin in the student film club of University of Oslo, and has gone on to become one of Norway's most favourite festivals. It...
Festival in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the American rights to the film.. The film was Lebanon's choice to compete in the Academy Award's "Best Foreign-Language Film" category. The film also won the Byarad d'Or at the Festival international du film Francophone de Namur in Belgium and the Doha Tribeca Film Festival's Best Narrative Film award.
Circumstance
Circumstance (2011 film)
Circumstance is a 2011 dramatic film written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz. It explores homosexuality in modern Iran.-Plot:Atafeh is the teenage daughter of a well-to-do Iranian family in Tehran...
, a film by Maryam Keshavarz that explored homosexuality in modern Iran, was filmed entirely on location in Beirut.
In the summer of 2011, the city of Beirut participated in the 48 Hour Film Project
48 Hour Film Project
The 48 Hour Film Project is a contest in which teams of filmmakers are assigned a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short film containing those elements. Shortly after the 48 hours of filmmaking, the films from each city are then screened at a theater...
for the first time where 24 teams competed. Cyril Aris won the Best Film category for his short, "Anoesis," which will be Beirut's entry in Filmapalooza 2012, the final festival for the 2011 48 Hour Film Project.
Danielle Arbid's filmed her third feature, Beirut Hotel, which had a world premiere at the 64th Locarno Film Festival in August of 2011.
Mounir Maasri's Rue Huvelin, which was set in 1990, told the story of seven Saint Joseph University students from Beirut's Rue Huvelin
Rue Huvelin
Rue Huvelin , is a street located east of Beirut Central District in the neighborhood of Achrafieh. The street is named after Paul Huvelin, a French legal historian who founded the law school of the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut in 1913...
during the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Né à Beyrouth produced the film.
Jean-Claude Codsi filmed his second feature, A Man of Honor, which was produced by Michel Ghosn and premiered at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival on October 28, 2011.
Also in 2011, Celine Abiad's Beiroots Productions presented a different perspective of Mediterranean filmmaking by producing and experimental surrealist film (5.1 Dolby surround), shot in 35mm and fully produced in Lebanon: A Play Entitled Sehnsucht, written and directed by Badran Roy Badran. The film was picked up for international distribution at Cannes, by Albany Films International, a company dedicated to the promotion of art house and indie films from gifted and promising directors.
Documentary filmmaking was also present in 2011. Rania Stephan won "Best Documentary Filmmaker" at the Doha Tribecca Film Festival for The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosny . It's All in Lebanon, a documentary film directed by Wissam Charaf and produced by Né à Beyrouth Production, premiered at DIFF in 2011.
Non-exhaustive list of actors
- Cyrine AbdelnourCyrine AbdelnourCyrine Abdelnour is a Lebanese singer, actress, and model.Her first album, Leila Min Layali, was released in 2004. She released her second album, Aleik Ayouni in 2006, with debut single Law Bas Fe Aini becoming one of the most popular Lebanese songs of 2006. Abdelnour has also starred in Arabic...
- Nada Abou Farhat
- Takla Chamoun
- Rodney El Haddad
- Peter Fattouche
- FairuzFairuzNouhad Wadi Haddad , famously known as Fairuz is a Lebanese singer who is widely considered to be the most famous living singer in the Arab world and one of the best known of all time...
- Adel Karam
- Leïla KaramLeïla KaramLeila Karam was a Lebanese actress. Her major contributions were in the 1970s and 1980s in many Lebanese and Egyptian movies, plays and TV series of Tele Liban.-Career:Karam began her career in broadcast media in 1956, at Near East Radio...
- Nadine LabakiNadine LabakiNadine Labaki is a Lebanese actress and director. She is one of the well known directors in the Arabic music video industry...
- Carmen LebbosCarmen LebbosCarmen Lebbos is a Lebanese actress who has been working in film, television and the theater since 1981. She has been in several television series including Esma lah and will appear in the leading role this fall in The teacher’s daughter. She also appeared in Ziad Doueiri’s West Beyrouth...
- Majdi Machmouchi
- Jalal MerhiJalal MerhiJalal Merhi is a Canadian action film producer. He started his film career by selling his jewellery business to start a film production company. He has produced and acted in numerous action films that can be considered martial arts B movies...
- Liliane NemriLiliane NemriLiliane Nemri is a Lebanese actress who has played in a number of Lebanese movies, Series, Theatre, Radio. Her mother is Alia Nemri, the actress, who also played in a number of Lebanese movies. Liliane was born into a family of artists....
- Razane Jammal
- Sabah (singer)Sabah (singer)Sabah , Wadi Chahrour, Lebanon is a Lebanese singer and actress.She has released over 50 albums and has acted in 98 movies, as well as 20 stage plays...
- Liz Sarkisian (Eman)
- Hana ShehaHana ShehaHana shiha , born Hana Ahmed Shiha, is an Egyptian actress.-Biography:Born into a family full of artists .Her first screen appearance was in the tv seriesOur great love , Subsequently she appeared in Teour...
- Madline Tabar
Non-exhaustive list of film directors
- Borhane AlaouieBorhane AlaouiéBorhane Alaouié is a Lebanese film director. He has directed five films since 1975. His 1981 film Beyroutou el lika was entered into the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.-Filmography:* Kafr kasem...
- Philippe AractingiPhilippe Aractingi-Career:Born and raised in Beirut, Aractingi has made more than 40 films throughout his career, ranging from reports and documentaries to more personal and fictional films, all taking place in various countries around the world....
- Danielle ArbidDanielle ArbidDanielle Arbid , born 26 April 1970 in Beirut, is a Lebanese film director. She left her country at the age of 17 to study literature in Paris. In 1997 she started making films. Interested in different narrative forms, her work alternates between fiction, first person documentaries and video...
- Maroun BaghdadiMaroun BaghdadiMaroun Bagdadi was a Lebanese film director known for his vivid portrayal of Lebanon's civil war. Bagdadi was internationally the best-known Lebanese filmmaker of his generation...
- Badran Roy Badran
- Nigol Bezjian
- Vatche Boulghourjian
- Jean Chamoun
- Jean-Claude Codsi
- Ziad Doueiri
- André Gédéon
- Joana Hadjithomas
- Georges Hachem
- Khalil Joreige
- Christophe Karabache
- Sami Koujan
- Nadine LabakiNadine LabakiNadine Labaki is a Lebanese actress and director. She is one of the well known directors in the Arabic music video industry...
- Randa ChahalRanda ChahalRanda Chahal Sabbag also written Sabbagh, , was a Lebanese film director, producer and screen-writer born to an Iraqi mother and Lebanese father....
- Jocelyne Saab
- Ghassan SalhabGhassan SalhabGhassan Salhab is a Lebanese screenwriter, film director, and producer.Salhab was born in in Dakar, Senegal to Lebanese parents. In Addition to making his own films, Salhab collaborates on various scenarios in Lebanon and in France, and teaches film at ALBA and USJ...
- Mohamed Selmane
- Heiny Srour
- Chadi Zeineddine
Non-exhaustive list of cinematographers (DOP)
- Muriel Abourouss
- Samir Bahzan
- Mark Karam
- Fadi Kassem
- Yves Sehnaoui
- Ziad Chahoud
External links
- Cinemas and movies in Lebanon - Di3aya Movies
- Cinemas in the Lebanon - TEN Movies