The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
While there has been steady increase in film production since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, the number of films produced each year remains relatively small in comparison to what it used to be in the 1960s, and the industry remains heavily dependent on foreign funding, mainly European. The industry also remains reliant on international box office revenues due to the limited size of the domestic market.
Despite that, local films have enjoyed a degree of local and international success. Ziad Doueiry's The Insult was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Nadine Labaki's three features have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival, starting with Caramel in the Directors' Fortnight. Her second feature Where Do We Go Now? was screened in Un Certain Regard and later won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival while her third feature, Capernaum, was nominated for a Palme D'Or and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
History
The history of film in Lebanon goes back to the 1890s. Two years after the Lumière Brothers publicly projected their first film in December 1895 (Paris, France), they began sending traveling representatives to tour different countries to show their movies. One of the cities that they visited was Lebanon's capital city, Beirut. Several years later, in 1909, the first movie theater was opened in the same city by the Pathé Frères. These events helped cultivate a film-viewing culture into the country. The first Lumiere operator who went to Lebanon was Alexandre Promio.
French Mandate
A sharp increase in the number of theaters was observed between 1923–1929. By the end of the 1920s, cinemas were common in Beirut, and some were used as a place for political gatherings. For example, in 1925, the Communist Party met at the Crystal Cinema in Beirut. Cinemas had become so popular that in 1931, students marched in a protest, demanding that prices of movie tickets be lowered. To compete against Hollywood, France decreed that all American films that were being imported to Lebanon be dubbed into French.
The first local film, The Adventures of Elias Mabruk, was made in 1929. It was a silent film, directed by Jordano Pidutti. Pidutti was an Italian immigrant who worked as a chauffeur for the Sursock family before devoting his life to film. His first film, The Adventures of Elias Mabruk tells the story of a Lebanese emigrant who returns to Lebanon after a long absence in America in search of his family. This tale of an emigrant's homecoming, captured nostalgic feelings in a country of emigrants and would become a recurrent theme in Lebanese cinema. Jordano Pidutti's second film was The Adventures of Abu Abed. The comedy is considered the first film made with Lebanese funding. The financier was Rachid Ali Chaaban, who was also the star of the film.
Lebanese women, like Assia Dagher and Mary Queeny, played pioneering roles in Egyptian cinema. In Lebanon, Herta Gargour, who managed the film studio, Luminar Films, is credited with establishing filmmaking in Lebanon after the silent era. In the Ruins of Baalbeck (1936), which was produced by Luminar Films, was the first sound film. It was a hit with audiences and profitable. The film, which was directed by Julio De Luca and Karam Boustany, depicted the love story of a local prince who falls in love with a foreigner. The film is considered the first Arab film produced entirely in an Arab country and featuring the Lebanese dialect.
Ali Al-Ariss became the first Lebanese-born to direct a film on his own when he made The Rose Seller in 1940, which was followed by Planet of the Desert Princess
Documentaries were also being made during this period, but they were heavily censored by the French.