Safy Boutella is an Algerian musician, arranger, composer, and record producer who graduated from Berklee College of Music. He is the father of dancer and actress Sofia Boutella. He is best known for creating with Khaled the album Kutché, his album Mejnoun, arranging Nass el Ghiwane, and many young artists since the nineties. He also composed for Djamel Allam Djawhara, more than seventy movie soundtracks, and five musical frescoes.
Rachida Brakni is a French actress and producer. She is married to actor and former professional footballer Eric Cantona.
Chaos is a 2001 French drama film written and directed by Coline Serreau. It was Serreau's ninth film, about a Parisian woman who befriends an Algerian prostitute after witnessing an accident, changing both their lives.
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together. They also own the production company Les Films du Fleuve.
Philippe Aractingi is a Franco-Lebanese author, director, producer, actor and photographer.
Yasmine Leïla Bekhti is a French film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in Tout ce qui brille (2007) and, in 2006, Paris, je t'aime and Sheitan.
Régis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter and film score composer. His 1992 film Indochine won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards. His 1995 A French Woman was entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival where he won the Silver St. George for the Direction.
Under the Bombs is a 2007 Lebanese drama film directed by Philippe Aractingi. The film is set in Lebanon at the end of the 2006 Lebanon War.
Inch'Allah Dimanche is a 2001 French/Algerian film written and directed by Yamina Benguigui. It is the director's first feature-length fiction film, and the story is centred aound the life of an Algerian immigrant woman in France. The film won a number of awards, including the FIPRESCI Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Délice Paloma is a 2007 French-Algerian film directed by Nadir Moknèche and starring Biyouna. It tells the story of Madame Aldjeria, her past life, her glory, her dream, and her downfall as queen of petty dealing, 'the mafieuse', against the backdrop of Algiers and the Algeria of Independence to today.
Nujoom Alghanem is an Emirati poet, artist and film director. She has published eight poetry collections and has directed more than twenty films. Alghanem is active in her community and is considered a well established writer and filmmaker in the Arab world. Her achievements in the arts have been recognized both nationally and internationally. She is the cofounder of Nahar Productions, a film production company based in Dubai. Currently she works as a professional mentor in filmmaking and creative writing, as well as a cultural and media consultant.
Rachida Triki, also known as Rachida Boubaker-Triki is a Tunisian philosopher, art historian, art critic, and art curator. She is a full professor of philosophy at Tunis University, specialized in Aesthetics.
Yamina Bachir was an Algerian film director and screenwriter. Her film Rachida was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. According to Roy Armes, Rachida is 'the first 35mm feature directed by an Algerian woman in Algeria'. The film was primarily financed by French and European funding companies. It was popular in Algeria and was distributed internationally in France.
Of Gods and Men is a 2010 French drama film directed by Xavier Beauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. Its original French language title is Des hommes et des dieux, which means "Of Men and of Gods" and refers to a verse from the Bible shown at the beginning of the film. It centers on a true story that happened in the monastery of Tibhirine, where nine Cistercian monks lived in harmony with the largely Muslim population of Algeria, until seven of them were kidnapped and assassinated in 1996 during the Algerian Civil War.
Ahmed El Maanouni is a Moroccan screenwriter, film director, cinematographer, actor and producer. His films include Alyam Alyam (1978), the first Moroccan film to be selected in Cannes Film Festival and winner of the Grand Prize at the Mannheim Film Festival. He caught international attention when his film Trances was honored and presented by Martin Scorsese at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival to inaugurate the World Cinema Foundation. His film Les Coeurs brûlés (2007) won the Grand Prize at the National Film Festival and was awarded many international prizes. His documentary films consistently interrogate colonial history and its impact on Moroccan memory. He directs study groups and educational programs in Morocco and throughout the world. In 2007, he was honored with the title of Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.
The Entrevues Belfort Film Festival is an annual international film festival, founded in 1986 by Janine Bazin and held in Belfort, France. Through its First Films International Competition, the festival is dedicated to support emerging filmmakers. Alongside of the International Competition, the festival focuses on rediscovering filmmakers from the cinematic heritage with retrospectives, tributes and encounters. It also offers a Post-production Grant for first international features films.
Since 1986, the festival has been successively directed by Janine Bazin (1986-2000), Bernard Benoliel (2001-2004), Catherine Bizern (2005-2012) and Lili Hinstin . Many first films of now renowned young directors were selected by EntreVues Belfort, such as:
Let Them Come is a 2015 French-Algerian drama film directed by Salem Brahimi. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
Sofia Djama is an Algerian film director. Her 2017 feature film debut, The Blessed, won three awards at the Venice Film Festival, including the Brian Award, given to the film which "best champions human rights, democracy, pluralism and freedom of thought", and the Lina Mangiacapre Award for a film which "changes the image of women in the cinema".
