The organizers of the Al Ain Film Festival announced the organization of the second session of the festival, during the period from January 22 to 25 in the city of Al Ain, stressing that the establishment of the new session only seven months after the first session, which was organized last May, is a major challenge at the level of Several, but their eagerness to continue the event motivated them to overcome challenges.

The founder and director of "Al Ain Film Festival", Amer Salmin Al-Marri, said that the festival, which is sponsored by Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, will be held in January of every year, so that it can benefit from the mild weather in this period of the year. In highlighting what Al Ain enjoys from its distinctive tourism components, by organizing a tourist program for visitors, guests and stars of the festival, to enjoy the winter atmosphere in the Emirates, and to define the city’s famous sites and tourist attractions that express the heritage of the UAE and its civilization, to be «Al Ain Film Festival» Acts as a bridge between enjoyment Cinema and tourist promotion for Al Ain.

in the fresh air

Al-Marri added, during the press conference that was held the evening of yesterday, at the Youth Center in Abu Dhabi to reveal the details of the festival, that the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in the historic Al Jahili Fort, and the opening movie will be shown in the open air, explaining that the new session will also bear the slogan «cinema The Future », confirming the festival’s trend to support new talents and young filmmakers, to create a new generation of Emirati filmmakers able to continue the march. He continued: «Whoever follows the cinematic movement in the UAE notes the retreat of Emirati posts in the various film festivals, as a result of the cinematography’s demand to produce films that are commercially displayed in theaters, and if this situation continues, we will not have attendance at the film festivals, and therefore we are keen on (Al Ain Film) to Launching initiatives to adopt young talents, support and encourage artistic films produced with the aim of participating in festivals, and despite the novelty of the festival, we found young talents in which she found an opportunity to develop, such as director Saud Al-Shehhi, who started with us in the last session with a short film, and participated in the current session with the first "A long movie for him, and there are many students who participate for the second time, and this is what we are looking for."

New initiatives

About the new festival, Al-Marri explained that the most important initiatives that were added in the second session of "Al Ain Film Festival", the launch of a new award, which is the prize for "the best Emirati talent in cinematic creativity", and is given to creative talents in the fields of acting, directing or authoring, to encourage their owners to continue In the realization of their dream as a filmmaker, there is also the "Beach Cinema" initiative, as it will display the festival's films on various beaches of the Emirates, during the weekend at the summer vacation, and the initiative will start from the Abu Dhabi Corniche, then move to Dubai, Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, so that the audience can enjoy a unique experience One of a kind to watch th Outdoor movies.

He pointed out that the festival continues in its current session to establish more artistic partnerships, as it will witness an agreement and a new memorandum of understanding with the Academy of Arts in Egypt, the Higher Institute for Cinema in Cairo and Alexandria, and during this it will announce the first joint executive experience to support young people, and create new initiatives to support the film The Emirati and the Gulf in general, and the event continues to cooperate with the Delhi Film Festival.

Awards and competitions

For his part, the festival's artistic director, Hani Al-Shaibani, reviewed the participating competitions and films, pointing out that finding good films to participate in a period not exceeding seven months is one of the most important challenges that faced the current session, and despite that, Al Ain Film Festival attracted 280 films this year. 56 films, including from the UAE and the Gulf, are divided into five official competitions, during which 11 awards are presented, namely the competition “The Emirati Falcon and the Long Gulf”, in which five local and Gulf feature films compete, the Competition “The Emirati Short Falcon” and the Competition “The Gulf Falcon Short”, which includes 21 A film, and the "resident films" competition, no T is witnessing strong participation and presenting 10 works, and the "Falcon Students" competition, which includes 16 films. It will also display four films within the "Cinema of the World" event, in addition to the "Jury Prize", which is a promotional award and not in kind.

Premium level

Al-Shaibani revealed the selection of the Sudanese movie "You will die in the twentieth", which is based on the story "Sleeping at the feet of the mountain" by Sudanese writer Hamor Ziada, which will be presented at the opening ceremony in his first show at a Gulf film festival, and the work that was directed by the director Amjad Abu Al-Ala, and co-written with him Youssef Ibrahim, is the seventh feature film in the history of Sudanese cinema, and the second to be shown in festivals, after the movie "Wedding of Zein", as it was shown in many Arab and international festivals, winning several awards, the last of which was the "Lion of the Future" award from the Venice Film Festival. The story “You will die in the twentieth” revolves around a Sudanese family who has a baby and the parents go to one of the elders to bless the child, so he tells them that this child will die after reaching the age of 20 .. Thus the child lives his entire life under the authority of this prophecy, and the viewer continues his life from this moment until reaching the age of 20 .

Al-Shaibani mentioned that the director of the film, Amjad Abu Al-Ula, lived in Al-Ain, as well as the writer Youssef Ibrahim Emirati, and this encouraged the festival management to choose the film in addition to its distinguished artistic level, and the desire of the festival organizers to provide an opportunity to see the film or the Emirati audience. For his part, the festival's public relations officer, Ali Al Marzouqi, reviewed the preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies and welcoming guests, indicating that he will organize a tourist visits program for guests to get to know the city of Al Ain and its most prominent features, and the places that serve as locations for photographing artworks in it.

Honoring

The new edition of "Al Ain Film Festival" is slated to honor the achievements of a group of artists on their busy career, including the Egyptian artist Ahmed Badir, the Emirati artist Dhaen Juma, the Emirati artist Maryam Sultan, the Kuwaiti artist Tariq Al-Ali, and the Kuwaiti director Khaled Al-Siddiq, who undertook directing The first Gulf movie, "But Ya Bahr". The opening ceremony will also witness a group of Gulf and Arab artists, including Bushra, Tariq Al-Ali, Sherry Adel and others.

Condolences

During the press conference, the team of the "Al Ain Film Festival" expressed its condolences for the death of the Bahraini artist Ali Al Ghurair, who was finally absent, expressing their regret for this great artistic loss.

They affirmed their intention to honor the late's name during the current session, in appreciation of his artistic history.

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Ongoing The second session of the festival kicks off with a busy program.

280

Film, attracted by the festival, 56 of which are from the Emirates and the Gulf.