Ansamed

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 14 - Some 200 professionals, including top filmmakers, and national authorities in charge of cinema and audiovisual from the nine Mediterranean partner countries, will gather today and tomorrow for the first regional conference of the EU-funded Euromed Audiovisual III programme.

According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), they will meet in Tunis. ''In a framework of radical changes affecting the countries of the southern shore of the Mediterranean - said Marcus Cornaro, Director in charge of the Neighbourhood Policy for the European Commission's Directorate-General EuropeAid - cinema and audiovisual can play an essential role in favouring democracy and critical openness of the civil society to pluralism. This is the reason why the European Union is committed to strengthen the audiovisual industries of Southern Mediterranean countries''. The conference will focus on three main issues: presentation of Euromed Audiovisual III Programme activities scheduled for the next three years and collection of as many opinions and recommendations as possible from audiovisual professionals in the partner countries; analysis of the cooperation activities between Europe and Southern Mediterranean countries and those between Southern countries. The conference will also explore possible links and cooperation with the Gulf countries; in-depth discussion and common reflection, through the support and delivery of case studies and best practices, on the priorities of the Euromed Audiovisual III Programme: creation of a regional coproduction fund, role of television in the funding and promotion of audiovisual works, etc.

The conference will close on 15 of November with a panel on the 'new wave' of Arab cinema. Several filmmakers from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia, will talk about the recent events that have transformed the Arab world and the way in which these events might influence cinema. (ANSAmed)