CANNES WATCH: New scholarship fund will send aspiring female Arab filmmakers to UCLA

CANNES, France – A new scholarship program announced at the Cannes Film Festival hopes to help more Arab women break into filmmaking.

The Hani Farsi Graduate Scholarship Fund will pay for three aspiring filmmakers to study directing at the University of California at Los Angeles’ School of Theater, Film and Television.

The first recipients are scheduled to begin master’s degree studies in September through the program, a partnership between UCLA and the Mohamed S. Farsi Foundation.

Film producer Hani Farsi, who set up the charitable foundation named for his Saudi philanthropist father, said Tuesday that the program was the “first step in a call to action, which we hope will lead to a positive change for women in the film industry and in my part of the world.”

The relative lack of female directors in global cinema is a hot topic at Cannes, where just two of the 19 features competing for the Palme d’Or are by women.

—By Jill Lawless, http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

News from © The Associated Press, . All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Join the Conversation!

Want to share your thoughts, add context, or connect with others in your community?

Create a free account

The Associated Press

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.

Related Articles