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© Rana Massaad
In recent years, Georges Schoucair, who took over as CEO of Abbout Productions in 2004, and Myriam Sassine, who joined as lead producer in 2010, have shepherded an array of acclaimed Arab and Lebanese feature films into existence and onto the international distribution marketplace. A vital production and distribution hub for the region, Abbout Productions has sustained a network of Lebanese and Arab artists and filmmakers who, despite difficult and often catastrophic circumstances, fight to create independent cinema in the region.
In recent years, Schoucair and Sassine have produced celebrated films such as Costa Brava, Lebanon (Venice Orizzonti, 2021), Memory Box (Berlinale Competition, 2021), and works by local filmmakers of the caliber of Ahmad Ghossein, Mohamed Malas, Ghassan Salhab, Oualid Mouannes, Cyril Aris, Ely Dagher, Rana Eid and Myriam El Hajj, whose Diaries from Lebanon premiered in Berlinale Panorama in 2024.
Schoucair and Sassine have fought for independent cinema in other contexts too. Schoucair played a pivotal role in opening (and then reopening) Beirut’s Metropolis Cinema, a key industry and programming hub for the MENA region. Sassine, in turn co-founded Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, the only genre film festival in the Arab region, and is actively engaged in film training initiatives and industry events. Since 2021, she has managed Aflamuna Connection, a Lebanese co-production platform for Arab filmmakers. Additionally, Georges Schoucair provided support to none other than Jean-Luc Godard for Le Livre d’image (2018) and in collaboration with Myriam Sassine coproduced award-winning international films through the company Schortcut Films supporting filmmakers such as Alain Gomis, Kaouther Ben Hania, Lucrecia Martel, Elia Suleiman, and others.
On Friday, August 8, Schoucair and Sassine will also take part in a public conversation at Forum @Spazio Cinema, moderated by Swiss journalist and author Philippe Mottaz and organized in collaboration with ICT4Peace, a policy and action-oriented international Foundation whose purpose is to save lives and protect human dignity through Information and Communication Technology. This collaboration reflects the Festival’s ongoing efforts to engage with important global conversations and social issues.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director: “The films Abbout have produced are a sign of a society that is vital, alive, and continues to look to the future with dogged confidence. Through their films, Georges and Myriam have been able to tell the story of a country able to come to terms with its history while simultaneously imagining a layered and multifaceted Lebanese identity. They have also launched a great many new talents in front of and behind the camera, helping to give Lebanon a new face, allowing it to meet its potential, and offering a complex portrait of the country that goes far beyond the trivializations of the violence of war. They have worked tirelessly in the pursuit of a fertile and generous dialogue.”
The Raimondo Rezzonico Award, offered by the Municipality of Minusio, was created in 2002 in memory of the man who was President of the Festival from 1981 to 1999.
The 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will take place from 6-16 August 2025