{"id":119,"date":"2010-08-09T18:30:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T16:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfestivalresearch.wordpress.com\/"},"modified":"2025-03-30T10:16:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T08:16:48","slug":"6-4-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/ffrn-bibliography\/6-transnational-cinemas\/6-4-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"6.4 The Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

The relationship between the film festival circuit and cinema from\/in the Middle East has seldom been studied. Bill Nichols developed his study of reception patterns at film festivals and the “discovery” of new cinemas using the example of Iranian cinema (Nichols 1994, section 1.1<\/a>; Nichols 1994, section 8<\/a>). Jeffrey Ruoff has described the Carthage Film Festival as a festival focused on the promotion of Arab (and African) film (Ruoff 2008, section 6.3<\/a>). Azadeh Farahmand (2002, 2006) has presented a very detailed analysis. Farahmand takes the increasing attention paid to Iranian cinema since the 1990s as a starting point to examine how socio-economic factors and institutional politics, especially those facilitated through international film festivals, contribute to the production and elevation of films and national cinema. Key issues she touches on are the problem of censorship, (inter)national financing of film productions through the film festival circuit, and political negotiations via cultural exchange (Farahmand 2002).<\/p>\n

Along with franchising prestigious universities and museums from Europe and America in the last few years, several film festivals have been established in the Middle East as part of a larger cultural shift in the project to transform the oil region into a big cultural player. Next to older events like the Haifa IFF (25 in 2009) in Israel, Cairo IFF (33 in 2009) in Egypt, and the Fajr International Film Festival (2009 in its 27th edition) in Tehran, Iran, several new festivals have been established in recent years: for instance in 2000 the Marrakesh IFF was started with support from King Mohammed, and more recently several well-funded festivals in the emirates: the Dubai IFF, started in 2004, established itself as a platform for Arab cinema and added the Dubai Film Market in 2008; in 2007 the Middle Eastern International Film Festival (MEIFF) was launched in Abu Dhabi; in 2009 the Doha Tribeca Film Festival opened in Qatar (cf. Jaafar 2009). There is obviously research needed for these new players on the festival circuit regarding their relationships to other festivals and their impact on the regional and world film (festival) industry.<\/p>\n

Ajroudi, Asma, and Zena Al Tahhan. 2014. \u201c’Our Festival Is Our Window onto Others’: An Interview with Abbas Arnaout, Director of the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 285\u201395. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Akser, Murat. 2014. \u201cTable: Turkish Film Festivals.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 167\u201371. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Akser, Murat. 2014. \u201cTurkish Film\u00a0Festivals: Political Populism, Rival Programming and Imploding Activities.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 141\u201355. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Akser, Murat. 2015. \u201cNew Media and Film Festivals in the Middle East.\u201d cinej<\/i> 4 (1): 110\u201321. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5195\/cinej.2014.120.<\/p>\n

Arslan, Savas. 2014. \u201cA\u00a0Glimpse at the History of Film Festivals and Competitions in Turkey.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 134\u201339. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Bahmad, Jamal. 2014. \u201cBetween Tangier and Marrakech: A Short History of Moroccan Cinema Through Its Festivals.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 306\u201317. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Behlil, Melis. 2014. \u201c’Meetings on the Bridge’: An Interview with Azize Tan, Director of the International Istanbul Film\u00a0Festival.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 157\u201365. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Berry, Chris. 2014. \u201cFajr International Film\u00a0Festival in the 1990s: The Past Is Another Country.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 105\u201313. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Ciecko, Anne. 2006. \u201cBridges Between: Reflections on Dubai and Its International Film Festival.\u201d Asian Cinema<\/i> 17 (2): 17\u201325. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1386\/ac.17.2.17_5.<\/p>\n

Demy-Geroe. 2014. \u201cOn the Road for Iranian Cinema: Some Observations on a Decade or so of the Fajr International Film\u00a0Festival.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 115\u201327. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Denes, Nick. 2014. \u201cAn Overburdened ‘Brand’? Reflections on a Decade with the London Palestine Film Festival.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 251\u201364. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Denes, Nick, and Stefanie Van de Peer. 2014. \u201cTable: Palestinian Film\u00a0Festivals.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 265\u201367. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

D\u00f6nmez-Colin, G\u00f6n\u00fcl. 2014. \u201cWomen’s Film\u00a0Festivals in the Middle East: Challenges and Rewards.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 27\u201340. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Elena, Alberto. 2014. \u201cTowards a New Cartography of Arab\u00a0Film Festivals.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 3\u201314. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Estrada, Javier H. 2014. \u201cA Festival of Resistance and Evolution: An International with Mohamed Mediouni, Director of the Journ\u00e9es Cin\u00e9matographiques De Carthage \/\u00a0Carthage Cinema Days.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 319\u201331. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Farahmand, Azadeh. 2002. \u201cPerspectives on Recent (International Acclaim for) Iranian Cinema.\u201d In The New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation and Identity<\/i>, edited by Richard Tapper, 86\u2013108. E-Books von NetLibrary. London, New York: I.B. Tauris.<\/p>\n

Farahmand, Azadeh. 2006. \u201cAt the Crossroads: International Film Festivals and the Constitution of the New Iranian Cinema.\u201d Dissertation, Film and Television, University of California. Accessed May 22, 2020. http:\/\/proquest.umi.com\/pqdweb?did=1317311961&sid=1&Fmt=2&cl ientId=79356&RQT=309&VName=PQD.<\/p>\n

Farahmand, Azadeh. 2010. \u201cDisentangling the International Festival Circuit: Genre and Iranian Cinema.\u201d In Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories<\/i>, edited by Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover, 263\u201383. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.<\/p>\n

Farahmand, Azadeh. 2014. \u201cThe Forgotten Legacy: The Tehran International Film Festival (1972-1977).\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 86\u2013104. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Fohrer, Marion, and Stefanie Van de Peer. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in the Gulf Region.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 297\u2013304. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Frodon, Jean-Michel. 2014. \u201cThe Film Festival Archipelago in the Arab World.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 15\u201326. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Ghorbankarimi, Maryam. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in Iran.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 129\u201332. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Iordanova, Dina. 2014. \u201cCarole Zabar’s the Other Israel<\/i>.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 235\u201345. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Iordanova, Dina. 2014. \u201cFilm Festivals as Conduits for Parallel Cinemas: Bollywood.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 75\u201382. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Iordanova, Dina, and Stefanie Van de Peer, eds. 2014. Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East. <\/i>St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Iordanova, Dina, and Stefanie Van de Peer. 2014. \u201cIntroduction.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, xxi\u2013lvi. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Jaafar, Ali. 2009. \u201cFilm Festivals Bloom in Middle East: Events Have Sprung up over the Last Decade.\u201d Variety<\/i>, September 2, 2009.<\/p>\n

Jacir, Annemarie. 2006. \u201c’for Cultural Purposes Only’: Curating a Palestinian Film Festival.\u201d In Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema<\/i>, edited by Hamid Dabashi, 23\u201331. London: Verso.<\/p>\n

Kassem, Mahmoud. 2014. \u201cFilm Festivals in Egypt: An Overview.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 174\u201391. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Lebow, Alisa. 2014. \u201cFilming Revolution: Approaches to Programming the ‘Arab Spring’.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 61\u201373. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Marks, Laura U. 2014. \u201cArab Media Art: Experiments in Exhibition.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 43\u201360. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Marks, Laura U. 2014. \u201cThe Stakes of the Argument: Beirut, for Example.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 213\u201315. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Regev, Motti. 2011. \u201cInternational\u00a0Festivals in a Small Country: Rites of Recognition and Cosmopolitanism.\u201d In Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere<\/i>, edited by Liana Giorgi, Monica Sassatelli, and Gerard Delanty, 108\u201323. Abingdon, New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n

Saglier, Viviane. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in Israel.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 247\u201350. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Saglier, Viviane. 2014. \u201cUnstable and Sustainable: The Film Festival Institution and the Case of the Franco-Arab Film Festival in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.\u201d TRAC<\/i> 5 (1): 41\u201356. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/20403526.2014.895622.<\/p>\n

Shafto, Sally. 2014. \u201cA Film\u00a0Festival in the Polis: An Interview with the Organisers of the Festival Du Film Arabe De Fameck.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 333\u201346. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Shields, Amber. 2014. \u201cThematic Bibliography: Film Festivals and the Middle East.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 359\u201376. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Sienkiewicz, Matt, and Heather McIntosh. 2014. \u201cThe Spotlight and the Shadows: Film Festivals, Israeli Cinema and Globalisation.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 221\u201334. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Sienkiewicz, Matt, and Heather McIntosh. 2014. \u201cThe Spotlight and the Shadows: Film Festivals, Israeli Cinema and Globalisation.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 221\u201334. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Vallejo, Aida. 2014. \u201cSecuencias: Revista De Historia Del Cine.\u201d [Sequences: film history magazine]. In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 43\u201344. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies. https:\/\/repositorio.uam.es\/handle\/10486\/678945. Accessed February 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Van de Peer, Stefanie. 2014. \u201cDamascus and Beirut, or Why Arab Film Festivals Go on and Offline.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 197\u2013212. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Van de Peer, Stefanie. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in the Maghreb.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 347\u201358. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Van de Peer, Stefanie. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in Lebanon and Syria.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 217\u201320. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Van de Peer, Stefanie. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in Iraq.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 268. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Van de Peer, Stefanie. 2014. \u201cTable: Women’s Film Festivals in the Region.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 41. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

van Eynde, Koen. 2014. \u201cTable: Film Festivals in Egypt.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 193\u201395. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

Yunis, Alia. 2014. \u201cRed Carpet Education: The Persian Gulf Approach to Film Festivals.\u201d In Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East<\/i>, edited by Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer, 270\u201383. St Andrews: St Andrews Film Studies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"(Last updated: 30. March 2025)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The relationship between the film festival circuit and cinema from\/in the Middle East has seldom been studied. Bill Nichols developed his study of reception patterns at film festivals and the “discovery” of new cinemas using the example of Iranian cinema … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":72,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3196,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions\/3196"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.filmfestivalresearch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}