Cinema of Lebanon

Cinema of Lebanon
City Mall Beirut
No. of screens154 (2019)[1]
 • Per capita4.7 per 100,000 (2009)[2]
Main distributorsHaddad & Co
Italia Film
Fathalla[3]
Produced feature films (2015)[4]
Total31
Fictional17 (56%)
Animated1 (1%)
Documentary14 (42%)
Number of admissions (2010)[5]
Total2,794,708
National films16,666 (0.49%)
Gross box office (2006)[6]
Total£L48.4 million
National films£L2 million (4.1%)

The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema.[7] Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s,[8] and the country has produced more than 500 films.[9]

While there has been steady increase in film production since the end of the Lebanese Civil War,[10] the number of films produced each year remains relatively small in comparison to what it used to be in the 1960s, and the industry remains heavily dependent on foreign funding, mainly European.[11] The industry also remains reliant on international box office revenues due to the limited size of the domestic market.[12]

Despite that, local films have enjoyed a degree of local and international success. Ziad Doueiry's The Insult was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[12] Nadine Labaki's three features have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival, starting with Caramel in the Directors' Fortnight.[13] Her second feature Where Do We Go Now? was screened in Un Certain Regard and later won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival while her third feature, Capernaum, was nominated for a Palme D'Or and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[14]

  1. ^ "Serbia and Lebanon are now in Cinema Intelligence service". omdia.tech.informa.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  2. ^ "Table 8: Cinema Infrastructure – Capacity". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Table 6: Share of Top 3 distributors (Excel)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  4. ^ "IDAL Film Industry Fact Book 2015" (PDF). IDAL Film Industry Fact Book 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  5. ^ "Country profile: 3. Lebanon" (PDF). Euromed Audiovisual. pp. 90–91. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 October 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  6. ^ "Table 11: Exhibition – Admissions & Gross Box Office (GBO)". UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  7. ^ Armes, Roy. Arab Filmmakers of the Middle East: a Dictionary, page 26
  8. ^ Shafik 2007, p. 9.
  9. ^ Harabi, Najib. Knowledge Intensive Industries: Four Case Studies of Creative Industries in Arab Countries, World Bank Project, 2009, page 16.
  10. ^ "IDAL, Film Industry Fact Book 2015" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  11. ^ "Strictly Dabkeh! New Lebanese film 'Bosta' hits town". Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  12. ^ a b "Oscar Foreign-Language Race Is a Puzzle as Front-Runners Fall". 6 February 2018. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  13. ^ "Long Metrage - Caramel". Quinzaine des Realisateurs. Archived from the original on 15 May 2009. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
  14. ^ "Cannes 2018 Has Its First Genuine Sure-Fire Oscar Contender, And Maybe A Palme d'Or Winner Too". Deadline. Archived from the original on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.