The first edition of the Gulf Film Festival (GFF) will comprise of 146 films from 25 countries from around the Middle East region and points beyond. 

Gulf Film Festival will take place between from April 13 to 18, 2008, at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, Mall of Emirates.

“We are very pleased with the enthusiastic response from filmmakers towards the inaugural edition and can proudly boast that 90 per cent of the films being screened are world premieres. It has always been clear to us that this region abounds with talent and is a viable and rich setting for quality cinema in its own right,” said festival director for GFF Masoud Amralla Al Ali.

“The festival received over 200 entries for the official competition from filmmakers that centre on the issues, dreams and stories of the Arab world, epitomising the talent and passion that is coming from this region. It was difficult to narrow down the selection to 93,” he added.

In addition to the official competition in features, shorts and documentaries, GFF received over 300 entries from around the world for out of competition segments and will show 53 films from around the world.

Festival organisers confirmed 146 films for the final selection, representing established and upcoming film centres in the Middle East. In-Competition feature film category includes six films from KSA, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq.

There are 47 films in the running for in-Competition shorts representing UAE, Kuwait, KSA, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Iraq. Sixteen films have been selected towards in-competition documentary from Arab filmmakers in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, KSA, Iraq, US and Switzerland.

The festival, to further its mandate for promoting cinema amongst youth, includes a dedicated competition segment for students. Organisers have short-listed 15 shorts and nine documentaries from student filmmakers in the GCC and Iraq.

In addition, the festival will showcase 53 films in the out of competition segment from filmmakers in China, Canada, Germany, US, GCC, Palestine, Iran, Kurdistan, UK, India, France, Argentina, Italy, Hungary, Spain and Lebanon.

This includes eight films from Switzerland in the “In the Spotlight” segment and 4 films from the UAE within "Animation for Children” programming.

GFF will present top three prizes in the categories of feature, shorts and documentary in the official competition, and short and documentary in the students’ competition. There will be a Special Jury Prize in both categories and a separate script competition for Emirati short films. – TradeArabia News Service