Founding and Artistic Directors of the Notre Dame University-Louaize International Film Festival (NDUIFF) Sam Lahoud and Dr. Nicolas Khabbaz were recently selected among “The 100 Most Important Names in the Arab Film Industry” in the eighth Cannes special edition of Arab Cinema Magazine.
What better time and place than Cannes, the annual parade of cinema’s superpowers, to reveal whom in the past year in the Arab film industry has mattered most? Lahoud and Dr. Khabbaz were listed among the golden hundred talents and entities in the Organizations segment (in reference to the role played by NDUIFF in the Lebanese Film Industry) alongside other Lebanese celebrities, such as Nadine Labaki, Ziad Doueiri, Adel Karam, Diamand Abou Abboud, Georges Shoucair, Hania Mroue, Zeina Sfeir, and Antoine Khalife.
As stated in the magazine, “Their work for NDU is just one aspect of an entire patchwork of festivals, organizations, workshops, and companies in which both men are involved across Lebanon that have helped bolster the cinematic environment in that country. Both are board members of the Silk Road International Film Festival in Dublin and have produced films together.”
Listings were as follows: directors, writers, gatekeepers, actors, producers, festivals, exhibitors and distributors, platforms, funders, commissions, international sales, and organizations.