March 08--A new study from researchers at Northwestern University in Qatar and the Doha Film Institute (a Qatar-based organization "dedicated to film financing, production, education and film festivals") examined the media landscape in the Middle East and found that "indie Arabic films were twice as likely to have female directors as well as include more countries of production than their mainstream counterparts," according to a report from Deadline.
Other findings include a rise in the number of TV channels available to viewers in the Middle East since 2012. Also, the United Arab Emirates "has the most cinema screens across the Middle East, with 374, despite having a population less than a quarter of Egypt, which has only 295 screens serving a population of over 80 million."
Deadline also reports: "A lengthy on-stage debate between the panelists laid out once again the challenges of independent Arabic cinema finding a home with theatrical audiences in the Arabic world, with the hope that new platforms such as Netflix could offer viewers a new way to see that content, despite some filmmakers' preference for their films to be seen on the big screen."
nmetz@tribpub.com
