With its Short Film competition and Maskoon Fantastic Lab, the festival puts forward films and film projects in development from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and Palestine.
This year, Maskoon fantastic film festival taps into an Arab dimension. By broadening the scope of its competition, it now includes not only Lebanese short films, but also Arab shorts, while supporting, genre film projects from the Arab world through its Maskoon Fantastic Lab, for the second year.
For its fifth edition scheduled for the entire month of November, the festival will reach a larger public beyond Lebanon’s borders reaching the entire Arab region thanks to its online virtual form, except for the opening and closing films that will take place in person.
The festival is organized by Beirut DC, and the films will be available to watch on Aflamuna, a platform created by Beirut DC to support independent Arab Cinema. The opening and closing screenings will be held in person in Beirut at Cinema Montaigne in the French Institute.
The festival director, Myriam Sassine, declared that launching this edition of the festival was a “difficult decision” in light of the difficulties faced by the cultural sector in Lebanon “where cultural resilience is on the brink of extinction”, on top of the Covid-19 pandemic consequences. But she highlighted that “more than ever, the show must go on because the survival of the mind is as essential as the survival of the body.”
“This year, the festival takes advantage of the borderless online world to expand its wings and haunt the entire Arab world” said the director Antoine Waked. The festival presents “some of the best horror, thriller, sci-fi films from France, Spain, Japan, Iceland, Tunisia, Denmark, andAustralia”.
He added that the Short Film Competition also opened its frontiers “introducing new voices from Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar and KSA who chose the powerful path of genre cinema to reflect on their times.”
Myriam Sassine added that Maskoon Fantatic Lab is back for its second edition, “allowing fiveArab genre film projects in development to benefit from the experience of international experts, find new opportunities and get a chance to participate in Frontières, the world’s biggest genre market. Whether online or offline, Maskoon will remain a nurturing and supportive community for genre fans and filmmakers everywhere,” she says.
The festival will take place online on Aflamuna platform from the 1st till the 28th of November.
The opening film Titane by Julia Ducournau will be screened on November 3 rd at Cinema Montaigne in the French Institute. A bold and transgressive film which has been selected to represent France in the Oscars race for the best foreign movie, after receiving the Palme d’Or in Cannes last July.
The closing of the festival on the 24 th of November will highlight the Icelandic film Lamb by Valdimar Jóhannsson that premiered at Cannes Film Festival – Opening Un Certain Regard this year. It is the story of a childless couple who discover a mysterious newborn on their farm. The unexpected prospect of family life brings them much joy, before ultimately destroying them.
The rest of the lineup will be released on the Aflamuna platform online for free, open to all Arab countries and limited to 500 views per film.
Every week of November will include a selection of films “dominated by dark thrillers that pits men and women against their unforgivable societies that traps them into a living nightmare. A thematic that many of us are experiencing on a daily basis”, as per the festival’s artistic director, Antoine Waked.
Details of the program involve the first week, from the 1 st to the 7 th of November, two Spanish films will be presented in association with the Embassy of Spain in Lebanon: La Cabina (The Phone Box) by Antonio Mercero about a man who gets trapped inside a telephone box and nobody is able to free him, and Cross the Line by David Victori about a good-natured man who has an unexpected deadly confrontation that triggers his instincts. The first week’s program also includes the Mexican thriller New Order by acclaimed director Michel Franco who won the Silver Lion (Grand Jury Award) at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. In this movie, a lavish high society wedding unexpectedly turns into a class struggle that leads to a violent coup.
From the 8 th to the 14 th of November, comes Mad God from the legendary special effects and stop motion master Phil Tippett who will also give an online masterclass open to the public. From the Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen comes Riders of Justice starring Mads Mikkelsen. It is the story of a man whose wife dies in a tragic train accident. It seems like an accident until a mathematics geek, who was also a fellow passenger on the train, shows up.
The projections scheduled from the 15 th to the 21 st of November are short films by acclaimed Australian director Alex Proyas who will give a special online masterclass open to the public. His presented movies are: Phobos and Strange Nostalgia, a haunting short film made almost entirely during the lockdown employing various remote collaboration techniques, and Mask of the Evil Apparition about a young woman with no memory, in a deserted nocturnal city looking for something or someone. Only problem is she can’t remember who or what. Also showing this week is Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, the inventive feature debut by Japanese director Junta Yamaguchi that was unanimously loved by international festivals. It tells the story of a cafe owner who discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.
For its last week from the 22 nd to the 28 th of November, the lineup includes the Tunisian dark feminist noir thriller Black Medusa co-directed by Ismaël and his brother Youssef Chebbi. This film that was first presented in Rotterdam Festival back in January, is about a young woman who, during daytime is quiet and reserved, but after dark she dives into the nightlife of the city and picks up men that she beats up brutally. This week also includes the French thriller Messe Basse by Baptiste Drapeau starring legendary actress Jacqueline Bisset and Alice Isaaz. It is about a woman who just started university in Bordeaux. She moves into an old widow’s house who lends her a room in exchange for her help with daily chores. There’s one condition: acting as if her dead husband, was still alive. But soon, the young woman starts feeling his presence
A novelty of the festival is the Short Film Competition but this time open to the entire Arab world, and not just to Lebanese participants. Nevertheless, half of the 10 selected movies are from Lebanese directors: Aline by Christophe Sejaan, Blinded by Desire by Guibert Najarian, How My Grandmother Became a Chair by Nicolas Fattouh, The Hurl by Samir El Kawas and The System by Fayez Abou Khater. Two selected shorts are from Saudi Arabia: Acceptance Land by Mansour Assad and Cycle of Apples by Mahaa Al-Saati, against Exodus by Yassine El Idrissi (Morocco), J’ai Le Cafard by Maysaa Almumin (Kuwait), and The Black Veil by A.J Al-Thani (Qatar).
The jury composed of Giona Nazzaro artistic director of Locarno Film Festival, Laotian filmmaker Mattie Do and Lebanese filmmaker and sound designer Rana Eid will award the Maskoon Award that includes a monetary prize of 500$, and the Best Lebanese Film Award that will win a participation in next year’s Cinemed festival in Montpellier – France.
The Maskoon Fantastic Lab is back for its second edition. The lab specializes in the development and packaging of Arab genre films, aiming to assist Arab directors working on Arab genre film projects in development, and help them get closer to the production phase.
This year, the five selected projects are: Better Luck Next Time by Habi Seoud (Egypt), Khuzama by A.J Al-Thani (Qatar), Le Refuge by Talal Selhami (Morocco), Roqia by Yanis Koussim (Algeria) and Weedestine by Said Zagha (Palestine).
The authors of these projects are guided then selected by a comity of six experts including Annick Mahnert – Swiss producer, programmer, and head of Frontières market, Guillaume Nadaud – French expert in visual effects, Lebanese filmmaker Rania Attieh, Evrim Ersoy – head of programming at Beyond Fest, Patrick Andersson – producer, and Hugues Barbier – co-founder of Yellow Veil Pictures and producer.
At the end of the lab, one film will be awarded an invitation to take part of Frontières market in Montreal, the biggest genre film market in the world. Within the framework of Maskoon Fantastic Lab, many masterclasses addressing the production of this type of movies will be held for the participants, among which: Sound design with Frank Kruse who worked on famous movies such as Rush, Cloud Atlas et Perfume: The Story of a Lover, and Festivals & Filmmakers, a masterclass by Evrim Ersoy on how to produce and sell fantastic movies in international festivals. Two case studies will also be presented one about the making of Lamb with producers Sara Nassim and Hrönn Kristinsdóttir and sales agent Marcin
Luczaj. The second case study will be around the film Midsommar and will be animated by producer Patrik Andersson and co-creator Martin Karlqvist.
Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival and Maskoon Fantastic Lab are organized with the support of DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA), and the French Institute. The festival’s partners are the Embassy of Spain in Lebanon, Doha Film Institute, Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Frontières initiative, Dahshour residency, Château St Thomas, the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA), and Abbout Productions. Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival is a member of the Melies Federation of cinema festivals, that includes fantastic film festivals from around the world.
