24 Mar Cannes L’Atelier 2022
Two IEFTA Alumni have been selected for the Cannes L’Atelier 2022. Beza Hailu Lemma (Ethiopia) picked up at Cannes in 2019 with the project “The Last Tears of the Deceased”, and Ahmed Fawzi-Saleh (Egypt) discovered at El Gouna in 2020 with his project “Hamlet of the Slums”.
L’Atelier aims to stimulate creative filmmaking and encourage the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers. This year, from May 22 to 27, L’Atelier will arrange meetings with the directors for film industry professionals interested in investing in their project.
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Beza Hailu Lemma is an Ethiopian filmmaker, producer and writer based in Addis Ababa. A graduate of the Addis Ababa University School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (2016), he has been busy producing an array of projects, including web-shows, short narrative films and TV productions.
In 2016, he was awarded the 2016 Africa Centre Artist-in-Residency Prize, by the Bundanon Trust in Australia. An alumnus of Berlinale Talents 2019, Beza wrote and directed a narrative short entitled Ballad of the Spirits in 2017 and is currently drafting the script for his 1st narrative feature film.
Ahmed Fawzi-Saleh is an Egyptian writer/director. He earned a degree in History from the Suez Canal University in Egypt and continued studying at the High Cinema Institute in Egypt in 2009 to specialise in screenwriting. He took part in several documentaries as a scriptwriter and a researcher, and has also worked as a freelance writer for publications including Al Badeel and Al Hilal.
His short documentary “Living Skin” (2011) was screened in many international film festivals and his debut feature Poisonous Roses premiered at IFFR in 2018. Hamlet From the Slums will be his second narrative feature film.
Fawzi Saleh co-produced feature documentary “Mother of the Unborn” by director Nadine Salib (Abu Dhabi FF) and has participated in various development programs/workshops including Final Cut at Venice Film Festival, AFAC’s development workshop, the Sanad Fund and Sundance’s Documentary Workshop (in collaboration with Arab Fund for Arts and Culture).