The president of the Jerusalem Film Festival Izz Al-Din Shallah announced launching the activities of the third session of the festival, sponsored by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the University Graduates Associations in Gaza Strip, on 29 November, which marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people. This was during a press conference held at Press House- Palestine.
The Committee selected 47 films to participate in the official competition of the festival, from 14 countries with three arbitration committees classified as follows: jury of feature films, jury of documentary films, and jury of amateur films.
Shallah thanked the Minister of Culture, Dr. Ehab Bseisu, for supporting the Palestinian cinema, which contributes in conveying the reality of the Palestinian people to the international community, expressing the Palestinian right to life and exposing the crimes committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people.
He pointed out that the preparations for the third session began a year ago, in order to create a cultural exchange between Palestinian filmmakers and filmmakers around the world through the participation of Palestinian films in international festivals expressing the stages the Palestinian people had to go through. Adding that they will try, in the next session, to make filmmakers of different nationalities attend in order to reflect the exchange of cinematic experiences at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
He also expressed his hope that the festival will be a window to the world of cinema and that the festival will continue until the central festival is opened in front of the walls of Jerusalem.
Shallah stressed that the festival administration chose to have a special section for the participation of amateur filmmakers and university students in order to create and develop a generation of young filmmakers through seminars on films and workshops in filmmaking.
