EXCLUSIVE: Image Nation Abu Dhabi is teaming with L.A.-based Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov and his manufacturing banner Bazelevs to launch the Screenlife Accelerator Program within the UAE.
The initiative will practice native expertise – each UAE nationals and residents – within the modern digital filmmaking format, pioneered by Bekmambetov and wherein the motion is solely set on laptop, pill or smartphone screens.
4 initiatives incubated beneath this system will likely be developed into function movies.
Screenlife pioneer Bekmambetov’s credit utilizing the low price range approach embrace field workplace hits Unfriended and Looking, which earned $65M and $75M within the U.S. respectively in opposition to a price range of $1 million.
The most recent instalment within the subgenre, Lacking, grossed $48.8 million and topped the Netflix film chart within the US final summer time.
The pioneering screenlife format has earned Bekmambetov’s movie and TV manufacturing firm Bazelevs a spot among the many high 10 most modern video firms on the earth by Quick Firm.
Bekmambetov is presently engaged on his new Amazon MGM thriller Mercy, starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson.
In addition to growing 4 function movies, the Screenlife Accelerator Program goals to determine the UAE as one of many rising hubs for digital filmmaking within the area.
By means of the partnership, Bazelevs intends to increase the recognition of screenlife movies throughout the Center East and add it to key movie markets like South Korea, India, and the UK, the place the corporate has beforehand launched accelerator packages and secured strategic partnerships for native film productions within the screenlife format.
“How we create and eat content material is altering at an unprecedented fee due to technological advances and altering viewing patterns,” mentioned Picture Nation Performing CEO Ben Ross.
“The Screenlife Accelerator Program is a chance for filmmakers to be on the forefront of this evolution, difficult how we take into consideration moviemaking and pioneering an thrilling new format as we proceed to construct a profitable and sustainable movie and leisure business throughout the GCC and wider MENA area.”
Bekmambetov mentioned the Screenlife approach affords the quickest method to break into the movie business.
“It’s faster and cheaper to provide than conventional movies, however most significantly it captures the brand new actuality of spending a lot of our lives on digital screens — a transition conventional cinema struggles to replicate,” he mentioned.
“I hope the accelerator program in Abu Dhabi will popularize screenlife within the rising MENA movie market and pave the best way for establishing a worldwide neighborhood of screenlife filmmakers.”
The accelerator program in Abu Dhabi will likely be open to aspiring and skilled filmmakers with a primary understanding of scriptwriting, directing, and manufacturing, in addition to an curiosity in telling tales in a screenlife format.
Twenty finalists will endure an intensive 12-week course divided into three phases. The primary part focuses on buying the important technical instruments for making a screenlife movie.
The second part revolves across the improvement and packaging of the contributors’ initiatives by refining their ideas and narratives, whereas additionally studying about budgeting and planning for the execution of their initiatives. The ultimate part sees contributors working collaboratively on a proof of idea and a pitch.
