Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival Opens Today

Maskoon film fest returns for its 6th edition today, Monday, December 12 and will be running until Friday, December 16th. It is one of the only festivals in the region that is exclusively focused on modern genre film. Their mission statement is to catalyze the growth of genre film in the region, and to explore its political and social connotations.

Despite the challenges the Lebanese cultural sector currently faces, the festival has managed to return for a 6th edition. Executive director Myriam Sassine commented that “even though this is the smallest edition to date, we conceived it with a lot of love, to prove our will to continue the fight to preserve Lebanon as a beacon of culture and creativity.”

The film festival’s program blends in the best of international and regional genre film, to feature 5 days of fantastic films. From the international selection, Palme d’or winner Triangle of Sadness (Dir. Ruben Ostlund) and Méliès Award winning Piggy (Dir. Carlota Pereda) stand out as some of the best genre films contemporary cinema has to offer. From the regional selection, two newly released Arab genre films feature, Ashkal by Tunisian filmmaker Youssef Chebbi, and The Alleys, the directorial debut of Bassel Ghandour.

The film festival’s full schedule is as follows:

Day 1 – Cinema Montaigne
– Opening + Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Ostlund at 7 PM

Day 2 – Cinema Montaigne
– Speak No Evil by Christian Tafdrup at 7 PM

Day 3 – Cinema Montaigne
– Piggy by Carlota Pereda at 7 PM

Day 4 – ALBA:
– Masterclass: Writing Genre Films in the Arab World (w Bassel Ghandour) at 9 AM
– Masterclass: Ecological Genre Filmmaking and Other Sustainable Practices (w Bassam Alasad) at 11 AM
– Panel: Creative Producing in Dystopian Times (w Bassam Alasad, Myriam Sassine, and Fares Ladimi)

Day 4 – Cinema Montaigne:
– Arab Short Film Competition at 5:30 PM
– Ashkal by Youssef Chebbi at 7:00 PM
– Deadstream by Joseph and Vanessa Winder at 9:00 PM

Day 5 – ALBA:
– Case Study: The Making on An Auteur Tunisian Thriller (w Youssef Chebbi and Fares Ladjimi) at 9 AM
– Panel: Sense, Sensibility & Censorship (w Bassel Ghandour, Youssef Chebbi, and Oualid Mouaness) at 11 AM

Day 5 – Cinema Montaigne:
– Arab Short Film Competition (Program 2) at 5:30 PM
– The Alleys by Bassel Ghandour at 8 PM

Their Arab short film competition features ten short films from local filmmakers, ranging from Qatar to Morocco to Lebanon. Winners of this competition will get the opportunity to screen their films at festivals internationally, so make sure you get the first look in before they make it big.

Admission is completely free, first come first serve. For more information, you can check out their Instagram.