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Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour was awarded the $100,000 Shasha Grant for her screenplay Wajda at the third Circle Conference, that came to a close in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.
Al Mansour was one of five contenders for the Shasha grant along with Annemarie Jacir, Engi Wassef, Rezah Abi Rafeh and Nadeem Thabet. The grant was instituted three years ago at the Middle East International Film Festival to identify, develop and launch the career of outstanding filmmakers.
Besides the $100,000 development grant, the filmmaker has also secured a first-look deal with Imagenation Abu Dhabi.
Although Al Mansour was not available for comment at the time of going to press, Digital Studio profiled the filmmaker in June 2008.
Story link: www.digitalproductionme.com/article-588-arab_women_behind_the_lens/
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Al Mansour, a self taught filmmaker, was at the time, attending a film course at the University of Sydney.
Back then, Al Mansour stated: “We come from a very young culture that has absolutely no exposure to filmmaking. We do not have film schools; we know no techniques or how to use cameras and we have no infrastructure to take this forward back home. Unfortunately, our young aspiring Arab filmmakers want to be directors and producers without ever having held a camera in their hand and they want to make films for pure entertainment.
“I personally believe that our first films should be a comment on our society; they should be vehicles to change the status quo. They should be less Hollywood-driven and more like Iranian cinema, which is a reflection of their society.”
Al Mansour’s previous attempts, Who?, The Only Way Out and Women With Shadows have all been reflections of Saudi Arabian society.
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