Arab World's Only Oscar Winner Targets Revival of Film Industry

(Bloomberg) -- The only Arab country to have won an Academy Award is betting on an epic film about an anti-colonial hero and the opening of new production studios to restore its place on the movie-world map.

Algeria, which took home the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 1970 for political thriller Z, is planning a “historical reorganization” of the domestic industry, according to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s adviser for cultural affairs.

That’ll mean more stories set in the fiercely independent North African nation — including a state-backed biopic of 19th century resistance leader Emir Abdelkader — and encouraging foreign productions to film there, Faycal Metaoui, who was recently invited to a meeting with Tebboune, said in an interview.

It’s a bold gambit for the OPEC member of 47 million people, which closely controls its energy-reliant economy and where foreign tourism is restricted. But Algerian state spending is on the rise while revenues are in decline, forcing the country to search for more income streams. 

Tebboune, 80, who came to power in 2019, is looking to bolster Algeria’s international profile, including via potential natural-gas deals with US energy majors. The country is currently embroiled in feuds with neighboring Morocco and former ruler France. 

Algeria’s parliament is due to discuss a bill this month that will demand an official apology and compensation from Paris for the colonial period. France’s more than century-long occupation has been the inspiration for most of Algeria’s major cinematic successes — including the Italian-Algerian production The Battle of Algiers in 1966, four years after independence. 

Algeria’s Chronicle of the Years of Fire garnered the top award at the Cannes festival in 1975, but it’s been decades since Africa’s largest country by area saw such recognition. Current annual output of films, including shorts, features and documentaries, barely reaches double figures.

By contrast, Egypt has been the Arab world’s film-making hub for nearly a century and still churns out dozens of movies and TV serials each year. Algeria’s much smaller neighbor Tunisia — where parts of the Star Wars saga were shot — has seen two features get Oscar nominations since 2020. It’s competing again this year with The Voice of Hind Rajab, a docudrama based on events in war-torn Gaza, which was included in the shortlist for international feature on Tuesday. 

Algeria’s 2024 founding of the National Film Center — a one-stop shop overseeing permits, operating licenses, visas and other issues — will remove troublesome bureaucracy that’s hampered doing business, according to Metaoui. 

A new ‘cinema city’ in Algiers, the capital, is envisaged with soundstages and other services, while there are plans for post-production and special-effects facilities in Tinerkouk, in the southwestern desert. 

Metaoui didn’t say how much the industry overhaul will cost, or where the funding will come from. The goal is to produce as many as 30 movies in Algeria annually, a reasonable target given 170 are currently seeking Culture Ministry funding, he said.

The film about Abdelkader — who led thousands in armed revolt against the French in the 1830s and 1840s — is seen spearheading the revival. He’s “the founder of the modern Algerian state — a huge symbol,” Metaoui said. 

“It’s a big production, and the Algerian government is ready to provide the necessary resources because we need to tell the stories of our heroes,” he said. “We’re not going to count the cost.”

Authorities also want to attract international film productions. Metaoui cited co-production agreements with countries including South Africa, Canada, Italy and Turkey, without elaborating.

There’s significant potential. Next door Morocco has became Hollywood’s go-to location to double for other Arab countries, as well as places as varied as Vietnam in Spy Game, Somalia in Black Hawk Down and Kenya in Inception. 

In the meantime, Algeria’s most prominent overseas-linked film may come from French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb. His prior movies about aspects of the countries’ tragically entwined histories, Days of Glory and Outside the Law, were both Oscar nominated for international film.

He’s preparing Reggane, a feature about the controversial subject of French nuclear tests in the Algerian desert in the 1960s. 

Filming is slated to begin in September 2026 in the country’s south, he told movie trade magazine Variety this month. 

Algeria’s “support is total,” Bouchareb said.

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