Critics Without Borders Participants 2021
TEAM
Mouhamad Keblawi – Project Manager
He is director, Producer, Founder and Head of Festival and Industry of Malmo Arab Film Festival. Expert producer, director in television and documentary film production. He has a broad experience in project management in media production and business development within the cultural and creative industries with particular focus on diversity.
He is the General Manager of the festival. He also founded Arab Cinema in Sweden (ACIS), a company that works on distributing and promoting Arab films in Sweden.
Ahmed Shawky – Project Leader
Ahmed Shawky is an Egyptian film critic, programmer, screenwriting developer and the Middle East head of development of “Viu” streaming platform. Publishing weekly articles about cinema and entertainment industry. He has also published six books Egyptian cinema. Shawky is currently the secretary general of Egyptian film critics association (EFCA), A FIPRESCI board member and the vice president of the African film critics’ federation (FAAC). He worked as a programmer for many film festivals including Cairo, Mumbai, Tripoli among others. He acted as jury in various festivals such as Locarno, Malmo, Oran, Shanghai, Eurasia, Transylvania, Macao, Sofia, Oran and Tetouan.
Batoul Ardat – Workshop Coordinator
Batoul Ardat is a Palestinian talented actress based in Sweden. Batoul has been working with art and culture since 2010. After working for several years with MAFF as a jury coordinator, MAFF Market Forum assistant and Forum coordinator, she became MAFF Industry Days coordinator in 2020.
PARTICIPANTS
Ronnit Hasson, Sweden
A freelance cultural journalist, artist, and filmmaker, Ronnit Hasson was born in Stockholm in 1973. She practiced acting, painting, and sculpture from early childhood. In 1995 after studying theater, film, and art, she started working in the film and television industry as a director, producer, and script developer. In 1999 she did a master’s in Video Art at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Between 2006-2010 she studied Media and Communication, Journalism, Film Studies, Practical and Theoretical Philosophy, and Cultural Critique at Stockholm University and Södertörn University. Since 2001 she has been dividing her time between working as a journalist, film critic, producer, director and exhibiting photography and video art. Ronnit Hasson’s film articles have been published in international magazines, and she has worked as a film critic at Expressen for ten years. She has also reviewed films on the Swedish radio channel, P4. Ronnit has been an award jury member of the foreign film section of the Swedish film prize Guldbaggen for four years and is currently a member of the Critics Awards jury of The Arab Cinema Center.
Rania M. Tawfik, Denmark/Iraq
Rania M. Tawfik is an Iraqi-Danish film director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rania holds a Master ́s degree in Film Studies from the University of Copenhagen and is a graduate from The National Film School of Denmark, Documentary Direction Department. Her graduation film “A light Breeze” was awarded BEST STUDENT FILM at Gulf Film Festival in Dubai. In 2012, Rania was chosen by CPH:Dox to co-direct a film with a fellow film director. Th result was “From a Distance”. The film was awarded THE JURY PRIZE at Baghdad International Film Festival. Rania has since directed a documentary series for the National Television of Denmark and worked as a guest teacher at The National Film School of Denmark. Recently, Rania has finished her latest film “An ode to Daddy” which granted her BEST DIRECTOR AWARD at Malmo Arab Film Festival. The film was supported by the Danish Film Institute and the National Television of Denmark DR3.
Peter Stuart Robinson, Norway/UK
Peter Stuart Robinson, PhD, is Associate Professor of Political Science at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He has a PhD in Political Science from UBC. His current research interests are in the cultural and urban dimensions of political change, especially regarding issues of mobility. He is also a film critic and analyst, contributing to the Norwegian internet film magazine Montagesmagazine.no, and a member of FIPRESCI (The International Federation of Film Critics).
Nada Azhari Gillon, Syria/France
A Syrian French critic mainly interested in French, Arab and Asian Cinema (Iranian, Indian…), she collaborates regularly with Arabic prestigious magazines and newspapers like Al-Hayat Newspaper (2000-2018), Al Jazeera Documentary (since 2011), Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper (since 2018) and Arab Cinema Magazine (was published in Beirut). Author of “Al Cinema al-irâniyya al-râhina (“Contemporary Iranian Cinema”), 2012. Member of The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), Union des Journalistes de Cinéma in FRANCE (UJC), Académie des Lumières in France. She covers cinema festivals for the press, participates in many Internationals juries (Vesoul, Warsaw, Istanbul, Algeria, El-Gouna, Dohuk, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kerala, Dhaka…), and advises some festivals in France and Asia about their programs of Arabic cinema.
Mohanad Salahat, Sweden/Palestine
Mohanad Salahat is an independent Palestinian Swedish filmmaker, researcher journalist, and writer born in Nablus, West Bank in 1981. He moved to Jordan in 2001, where he studied law and worked as a journalist and editor with several Arabic newspapers, magazines, and Arabic media production companies. In 2006, he started working as a freelance researcher, field producer, and assistant director with Arabic production companies. His films are often screened on Al Jazeera Arabic and English, Al Jazeera Documentary, and at film festivals worldwide. From 2014 to 2016, Mohanad was co-owner of and a film director with the Swedish production company Laika Film & Television AB. He has written scripts for a number of fiction and documentary films and TV series. Mohanad works as a consultant with a number of media companies, organizations, and film festivals. Most recently he supported the production and media relations of Palestinian Film Days in Malmö (2018), Palestine Film Days (2018, 2020) Ramallah – Palestine, and Malmo Arab Film Festival (2017 & 2018). Also a preview jury for CALCUTTA INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2021 in India. He is currently working as an independent filmmaker, writer, and journalist in Europe and Arab countries, living between Turkey, Palestine, and Sweden.
Lama Tayara, Syria/France
Lama Tayara is a Syrian writer and film critic, graduated from the high Institute of Dramatic Arts department of literature and criticism, she obtained her Ph.D. in Mass communication department (tv and cinema). She is working as an Advisor for a local United Nations Development Program, UNDP Damascus 2008-2009. She published many studies and books about Arab cinemas and drama including “Women in Syrian Cinema”, also she published her articles in many Arabic honorable magazines such as “AL Arab newspaper”, “Masrahona”, “Alhilal”. She prepares and presents Al Riwaq Podcast . She was a jury member in many film festivals such as Oran International Arabic Film Festival Muscat International Film Festival, Rabat International Festival of Film, and she was a Coordinator at the Arab Film Festival, Institute du monde araba in Paris France, and Artistic Director of the Arab Department, JCA, Algeria.
Khaled Ramadan, Lebanon/Denmark
Filmmaker, curator and cultural writer
Ramadan’s art-house filmmaking, curating and theoretical writing has rewarded him with a specialization in cinematic visual analysis and aesthetic and conceptual framing. He has curated and co-organized projects like the European Rooming Biennial, Manifesta 8, Spain 2010; the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale 2013; Made in Video Film Festival and MidEast Cut Film Festival, Denmark-Finland 2006-2009. Previously he has occupied positions as senior consultant at the Danish and the Maldivian Ministries of Cultures, and for the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Arts (NIFCA), Finland. Currently he is a guest lecturer at Lund University, Sweden; examiner under the Danish Ministry of Higher Education; and evaluator of Alto University professorship program, Finland.
Author of Peripheral Insider, Copenhagen University Press, 2007. Co-editor of the book, Journalism in Times of War, by Al Jazeera Media Institute, Doha 2018. He regularly contributes to international journals on topics such as art film, constructed media, aesthetic journalism, and social activism, latest in Border Thinking by Sternberg Press 2020, Vienna; Independent Republic of Culture by Istanbul Bilgi University Press 2019; and Trans-Visuality, The Cultural Dimension of Visuality, Vol 2, Liverpool University Press 2018. Ramadan is a senior nominator of The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Hong Kong; The Jameel Prize; International Award for Contemporary Art and Design, UK; and the Prince Claus Fund Award, NL. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Society. He is also a Co-founder of Laterna Magica Museum for Visual Knowledge, Denmark 2018.
Kais Kasim, Iraq/Sweden
Kais Kasim is an Iraqi journalist and film critic. He was born in Iraq, 1954. He studied Journalism in Czechoslovakia. Worked in Journalism and artistic sections, in Iraq since the mid-’70s. Kais is a member of International and Iraqi Journalists Syndicates. And also a member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac). He co-founded Arabian Television at Gothenburg, Sweden (ATC). Kais managed the Local Arabian Radio at Gothenburg, Sweden. Supervised film content in “Al Asboyiaa” (The Weekly) magazine. He writes film criticism for major Arabic newspapers and magazines. And is also a consultant for Arab Film Festival (Rotterdam). Worked as an editor for Abu Dhabi Film Festival website. Participated in many Juries in Arab, and International festivals. Kais is an active contributor to film workshops, and panel sessions. He covers International and Arabic film festivals, regularly. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Arab Cinema magazine and a member of Arab Cinema Critics Award Jury.
Hoda Ibrahim, Lebanon France
Hoda Ibrahim is a Lebanese journalist based in Paris and has been working for more than twenty-five years in Radio Monte Carlo and France International and at Agence France-Presse. The agency covered the aspects of the Arab cultural movement, especially in the cinematic aspect. On the radio, it presented many cultural and cinematic programs. She is particularly active in the cinematic field. She organized several film events, participated in many juries in Europe and the Arab world, and moderated many seminars on Arab cinema. She has participated in covering dozens of Arab and international festivals. She is a member of the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipreski), the lumières prizes which rewards French films, the tropes of French-speaking films, and Arab critics’ awards for Arab and European movies. She studied in Beirut and Paris in the fields of media, literature, and theater. She switched to working in French eight years ago.
Hind Anabtawi, Jordan
Hind is a Jordanian filmmaker based in Dubai with experience in writing and directing. She’s currently working in TV and film production and has so far written, directed, and produced two short films that toured various film festivals around the world.
Harri Römpötti, Finland
Harri Römpötti has worked as a journalist and critic specialiasing in comics, cinema, music, literature, and contemporary circus since 1989.
Gülbeden Kulbay, Sweden/Turkey
Turkish, Sweden-based multidisciplinary artist, Gülbeden Kulbay, has been working with Performance and Community-Art developing 15 years of experience in both fields. Working internationally with the theme she calls “Humanity,” she creates body-based performances that take the viewer to expand into broader perspectives of what it can mean to be human living in a capitalistic society. By leading workshops where she teaches performance art methods for young people, she encourages our youth to be aware of the connection between mind, body, and soul to sustain sanity, physical intelligence, and strength. This passionate artist has experience in leading Community-art where the actions take place at indoor public spaces such as libraries and outdoor public spaces like center squares. The action and artwork are always made as a Community-art piece, inspired and shaped from the personal stories shared during a lengthy process. She is currently exhibiting at Färgfabriken in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ásgeir H Ingólfsson, Iceland
Ásgeir H Ingólfsson is an Icelandic journalist and poet, based in Prague. He has worked as a cultural journalist for various publications – print, online, TV, and radio – for a decade and a half, and is the editor of the cultural blog Culture Smuggling, located on Smygl.is. He has also published two volumes of poetry, Grim Fairy Tales and The Future. The latter is also available in English and he‘s active in the Prague poetry scene, regularly performing with Urban Space Epics, Object: Paradise, and Multilingual Poetry Open Mic. He has university degrees in creative writing, journalism, comparative literature, and teaching. He has also worked as an English teacher, bookstore clerk, night watchman, and translator.