Empire International and Synergy Films on Saturday announced a new partnership agreement, signed last Thursday, that cements cooperation between the two companies and brings Egyptian and Middle Eastern films to a wider scope of audiences in the region. According to the agreement, the UAE's Empire International will be the sole distributor of movies produced by Synergy Films, a new Egyptian company headed by Tamer Morsi (one of Egypt's top TV and film producers and known for his work with many celebrities), while Synergy will be the sole acquisition agent of Empire for Egyptian films. The announcement was made at a press conference hosted in collaboration with the Dubai International Film Festival and attended by Empire's chairman of the board and CEO Mario Georges Haddad, president Mario Jr Haddad as well as Synergy Films' general manager Ahmad Badawy, executive producer Yasser Howaidy, with Egyptian stars Mohamed Adel Emam and Ahmad Fahmy also attending. Under the agreement it is expected that a minimum of nine movies will be released in 2018, starting with movies already in production such as Laylat Hana WaSrour, starring Mohamed Adel Emam and Yasmin Sabry and scheduled for Eid Al Fitr, Ahmed El Gendi's El Ze'eb Wal Onsa, starring Ahmad Fahmy with a release date for Eid Al Adha, as well as an untitled project directed by Tarek El Aryan and starring Amr Diab. “Empire is extremely proud to have partnered up with Synergy Films. The Egyptian film industry has been the shining star of Arab cinema for decades,” the official press release quotes Empire's Mario Georges Haddad as saying. “This marks the first time that an Egyptian studio collaborates exclusively with a Middle Eastern distributor on a regular basis, which is quite uncommon for Arab studios and is usually reserved for Hollywood studios. This will allow us to work with Synergy continuously and we are confident that this partnership will help bring back the Golden Age of Egyptian cinema thanks to an intelligent and modern distribution pattern, which is something that was sadly missing when Egyptian films were being distributed independently,” Haddad said. “Egypt was the second country in the world to host a cinema screening back in 1895 and it has since been a pioneer in the cinema industry. We believe that the joint efforts of Empire and Synergy will bring back Egyptian cinema to its old standard of popularity in the Middle East. We are motivated by a strong hope that, through this agreement, Egyptian cinema will achieve success also in the international scene,” Synergy general manager Ahmed Badawy said. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
