Twenty-nine of the best films from contemporary Gulf professional and student cinema will be screened in Abu Dhabi this weekend as part of the Gulf Film Festival which opened in Dubai last night.

The Top 29 will open to the public this weekend, from April 12 to 14, at the Abu Dhabi Theatre on the corniche, said the festival organisers.

The free weekend of documentaries, features and shorts marks the first time the five-year-old Dubai-based Festival will run simultaneously in multiple UAE cities, and its first foray into the UAE capital.

The Abu Dhabi screenings are organized in partnership with the Sultan Bin Zayed Centre for Culture and Media, and will open on Thursday at 8 pm, with the Kuwaiti feature film Tora Bora, which also opened GFF 2012 in Dubai.

The weekend screenings will include Gulf student films, Gulf shorts films and a feature film daily.

The lineup for Friday, April 13, includes: At 3 pm, seven films will be screened that have been selected from the Official Gulf Student Short competition of GFF.

These include three Emirati films - Life Spray by Fatema Abdulla Al Nayeh; Cats by Marwan Alhammadi; and London in a Headscarf by Mariam Al Sarkal.

The other films included in the lot are: Qatt from Oman by Al-Muntaser Bellah Al-Amri and Mohammed Al-Subhi; A Falcon, A Revolution from Qatar by Jassim Al Romaihi and Md Reswan Al Islam; O- from Iraq, directed by Yaser Hameed; and Snap Shot: A Trekking Man by Tareq Yosef Aldakheelallah from Saudi Arabia.

At 6 pm, on April 13, the Official Gulf Shorts includes two Emirati films: Glimpse by Nayla Al Khaja and The Intruder by Majid Al Ansari.

The other films included in the shorts package are: Someone by Mousaed Khaled and Meqdad Al Kout from Kuwait; Mirror by Hawraz Mohammed from Iraq; Like by Ahmed Alfardan from Bahrain; and Passion of the Eggs by Musab A. Al Marri from Saudi Arabia.

Friday’s screenings will close with the 9 pm science fiction feature from Qatar Lockdown: Red Moon Escape by Mohammed Al Ibrahim and Ahmed Al Baker.

The screenings on Saturday, April 14, kick off with a second package of Gulf student films at 3 pm, said the organisers

These include three UAE entries: The Smell of Heaven by Mohammed Swaidan; Al- KMD by Ahmed Al-Hebsi and Death Circle by Tariq Alkazim. The other selections are: The Easiest Way of Suicide directed by Ezah Saleh Ganab from Yemen; Cassette by Melak Abd Ali Mnahi from Iraq; and A Light Breeze by Rania M. Tawfik from Denmark.

At 6pm, short films competing in the Official Gulf competition will be screened including two UAE entries – Perfume of the Rain by Talal Mahmood and Alya Al Shamsi and Smaller than the Sky by Abdulla Hassan Ahmed – as well as Record by Luay Fadhil, a UAE-Iraq co-production; Panda by Jassim Al Nofaly, an Oman-Kuwait co-production; I Wish We Were Dancers by Mohammed Walid Ayyad from Kuwait; and Gouli Ya Helou by Mohamed Janahi from Bahrain.

The Abu Dhabi screenings will close with Emirati feature film Amal by Nujoom Al Ghanem at 9pm.-TradeArabia News Service