Youssef CHAHINE (1926 - 2008)

Considered the most important filmmaker in the Arab world, Youssef Chahine from Egypt was at the same time a talented director who mastered all types of filmmaking and a pioneer and innovator, always the first to try new subjects and approaches. He actively confronted intolerance and censorship in order to defend freedom of expression and choice. Chahine was also the first Arab filmmaker who dared speak out in the first person in his films about the fate of his country in terms of his personal journey.

His faithful audience at Carthage Film Festival, a festival, which in his own words, launched him onto the international scene, is a witness of his simplicity and ease of approach; like many other great men, qualities that we will greatly miss, like his films, eternal lessons of freedom for filmmakers to come.

Férid BOUGHEDIR

Youssef CHAHINE and Carthage Film Festival:

• Gold Tanit for his entire work, 1970
• President of the Jury, 1990

Ousmane SEMBENE (1923 - 2007)

The First Black African filmmaker to be recognized on an international scale author of the first feature film from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Senegalese Sembene Ousmane, was a self-taught writer then filmmaker after working as a docker. He was committed to liberating the Continent in every possible way and was a man of integrity, never allowing himself to be corrupted by success. In his life as in his powerful and prolific work, Sembene Ousmane was the embodiment of those defending the dignity of men and women of Africa and the need to resist oppression, both in the past and present.

Férid BOUGHEDIR

Ousmane SEMBENE and Carthage Film Festival:

• Winner of the first Gold Tanit with «La Noire de…» 1966
• Co-founder of the FEPACI (Fédération panafricaine des cinéastes) at the 1970 Carthage Film Festival
• President of the jury in 1968 and 1992

Férid BOUGHEDIR

Ahmed Bahaeddine ATTIA (1946 - 2007)

One of the most important producers in the history of Tunisian cinema, a controversial figure but central to national and international success from 1986 to 1996, Ahmed Attia crossed the borders of his country to co-produce films with Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Syria and Palestine (his latest production «Leila’s Birthday» by Rashid Masharawi). Instrumental in the creation of a national cinema, at the same time producer, distributor, movie theater owner, founder of a studio for cartoonists, president of associations, unions and festival director, Ahmed Attia was a man to which all the «greats» apply: great leader, great gambler, great communicator, great adventurer endowed with unprecedented courage, sweeping aside all obstacles that might keep him from reaching his goal. He succeeded in proving to those who give up, due to lack of means, waiting for manna from the North, that one can be a producer in every sense of the word even in the South.

Férid BOUGHEDIR

Ahmed ATTIA and Carthage Film Festival:

• Producer, winner of 3 Gold Tanits : «L’Homme de Cendres» (1986), «Halfaouine /Asfour Stah» (1990), «Les Silences du Palais» (1994)
• Member of the Jury, 2000
• Director of Carthage Film Festival in 1992 and 1994 - Vice President in 2004