During the current 33rd session, the Carthage Film Festival (Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage (JCC) will celebrate the 56th anniversary of its existence; representing more than half a century of commitment to African, Arab, Asian and Latin American cinemas, while remaining open to the best of world film productions.

Surrounded by a new team, I am honored and immensely pleased to renew this momentous encounter which brings together southern filmmakers and professionals, the international partners of JCC and the exceptionally enthusiastic and film-loving public, the irreplaceable guarantors of the brilliance and majesty of this unique event.

The JCC, the oldest festival on the African continent, has managed to establish a fine tradition of discovering new film talents from the South and to create spaces for debate and reflection to promote singular and authentic works. Fiction films and documentaries where the moral and political commitment of the filmmakers/authors is best served by varied forms of narration and staging. Original works organically rooted in the social and cultural concerns of southern countries.

Our first desire is to live up to this editorial line, its requirements, its challenges and its hopes. For this session we are aiming for more parity between men and women because we believe that these choices of social and civic involvement and sovereign desire cannot be made without the contribution of female filmmakers, from the North and South. This is why we are dedicating two new programs to rehabilitate the pioneers and to showcase the worthy heirs of our respective cinemas.

We wish to merge between cinema and thought, as well as between pleasure, emotion and questioning. We would like our eyes to meet and to share the excitement of new ideas and unique artistic proposals.

Through the various classic and innovative sections of this new edition, between the official competitions, focus, tributes and other parallel programming, we hope to illuminate the screens of Tunisia with exciting African, Arab and international films, which re-invent, through resilience, resistance and commitment, new paths for a better future.

Sonia Chamkhi is Associate Professor at the Higher School of Audiovisual and Cinema (ESAC, University of Carthage). She holds a PhD in cinema, audiovisual and television arts (Paris-Pantheon-Sorbonne), with a degree in image design, film- making and screen play writing. Sonia Chamkhi is a filmmaker, a fiction writer and a researcher.

Wholly engaged in the cultural and artistic scene, Sonia Chamkhi was also appointed as Director General of the National Cinema and Image Center (CNCI), Chairwoman of the Association of Tunisian film makers (ARFT), Director of the National Cinema Festival and the Vice-president of the Independent Union of filmmakers/ producers (SIRP) and the Union of Tunisian artists (UAT).

Sonia Chamkhi is also a writer of four books which have received numerous national and African literary prizes, including the CREDIF Prize for scientific research in 2003, the Zoubeida Bchir Prize for women creation in 2008, the COMAR Prize for the first novel in 2009 and an Honorary distinction of the NOMA Prize of African edition in 2009. She is a member of the Parliament of French-speaking Writers.