Rabat – The Atlas Workshops are offered to young emerging filmmakers in the Middle East and Africa.
The primary aims of the workshops is to assist filmmakers who are working on their feature-length narrative or documentary films. It also seeks to create a platform that would allow them to exchange their thoughts and experiences with 150 Moroccan and international professionals.
“Eight projects in development and six films in post-production, originating from nine countries, have been invited to take part. They will benefit from a tailor-made day-long consultation with professionals who will provide them artistic feedback, as well the Industry point of view. At the end of the workshop, a jury will award a Development Prize of €10,000 and a post-production prize of €20,000 to the best projects,” according to the website for the festival.
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Netflix is seeking to boost its market share through business cooperation in the Middle East and Africa. The company is building partnerships across the two regions and investing in local original productions. Morocco seems to be the perfect choice for Netflix as it is a gate to both Africa and the Middle East.
“I don’t want us to be deprived of any great storytellers and I know there’s going to be some in [Arabic-speaking] countries — we know there are, and we want to access them,” said Todd Yellin, Vice-President of Product Innovation at Netflix.
“It’s healthy psychologically…when people are exposed to people of other nations and what they do, then you gain understanding, and we start eroding away all the ignorance. So that’s the goal,” he added.
Online video streaming services like Netflix are booming in the Middle East and most of Africa.
“Rapid growth in premium online video services across the Middle East and Africa is a sure sign that Internet TV is a truly global phenomenon,” said Tony Gunnarsson, principal analyst with Ovum’s Media.
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