Al Ain Film Festival, in its fourth session, challenges “Corona” with 58 films
picture
With the participation of 58 films, including 47 films in official competitions, the Al Ain Film Festival is preparing to launch its fourth session, which will be held from January 23 to 27, in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, under the slogan “Cinema of the Future”, where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in the historic Al Jahili Fort. This is the second session of it held in light of the "Covid-19" pandemic.
The founder and general manager of the festival, Amer Salmeen Al-Marri, revealed that the current session attracted many carefully selected films, and the number of films competing in the festival’s official competitions reached 47 films, distributed over 5 competitions. The Long and Short Gulf Falcon” has 15 films, “The Falcon for Student Films” 8 films, and “The Falcon for Resident Films” 9 films. Noting, during the press conference held yesterday evening, Wednesday, at the headquarters of “Vision Cinema”, the organizing company of the festival, that the competition “ The Long Gulf Falcon is witnessing a clear momentum this year, as 4 Emirati films compete for its grand prize, which are “B82” by Khaled Mahmoud, “Safran” by Saleh Karama, “Chromosome” by Ali Jamal, and “Hein” by Saeed Rashid Saeed, And 3 Gulf films are the Saudi “A Woman’s Life” by Samir Aref, the Bahraini “Hawa” by Muhammad Al-Qaffas, and the Omani “The Zig” by Salah Al-Hadrami.
Al-Marri indicated that this year the festival is witnessing the launch of new initiatives, most notably the "Classic Corner" initiative, which sheds light on the most prominent productions of short Emirati films that contain ideas and purposeful social content, and most of them were the real launch of their makers in the world of directing, including the director's "way" Khaled Mahmoud, “Tenbak” by Abdullah Hassan Ahmed, “Bab” by Walid Al-Shehhi, and “Bint Maryam” by Saeed Salmin, explaining that Al-Marri that the aim of this initiative, which will be included in the annual festival, is to highlight the most important films The local shorts, which won important prizes in a number of Gulf and international festivals, serve as an educational and educational platform for the current generation, to acquire high-level directorial and artistic tools, implemented in those films, which have become a distinctive mark in the history of Emirati cinema.
In its fourth edition, Al Ain Film Festival is also witnessing the launch of the "Emirati Cinema Encyclopedia" initiative, which is an archival book that includes the history and stages of the development of cinema in the Emirates, its path and achievements over the past 50 years, starting with the establishment of the first theaters and famous old cinema venues, And the development of galleries in the Emirates, and the beginnings and development of Emirati film, whether short or long, with the aim of providing knowledge content to the Gulf and Arab reader about the history and achievements of Emirati cinema, and for the encyclopedia to serve as a reference for researchers, specialists, creators, students and all filmmakers in general, according to what Al-Marri explained.
On the honorees in the current session; He stated that the festival will continue to celebrate the most prominent filmmakers in the region within the “Achievements of Artists” program, and this year honors: the late Kuwaiti producer, writer and director Khaled Al-Siddiq, who was one of the pioneers of the cinematic movement in Kuwait, as he produced and directed the first Kuwaiti feature film entitled “Just Oh” Bahar” in 1972. Emirati producer and artist Sultan Al Neyadi, who harnessed his life and artistic creations to advance Emirati art, presenting many local works through which he embodied personalities that are still engraved in the memory of Emirati, Gulf and Arab viewers until now. and Egyptian film critic Tarek El-Shennawy, who is considered one of the most important and prominent film critics in the region, and has won many awards and honors for his critical writings.
He added, "The festival also returns to cooperate with the Abu Dhabi Festival, as the festival's strategic cultural partner, in the Abu Dhabi Festival for Unimplemented Scenario competition, which targets young Emirati authors, to create a new generation of writers that can enrich local content with new topics presented to cinema." .
The artistic director of the World Cinema Program Saeed Salmeen spoke, explaining that a group of films were selected within the "World Cinema" program that participated in the most important festivals in the world and won multiple awards, some of which were nominated from her country to the Oscar, to be shown on the festival screens throughout the period of its activities, including "Feathers". » by the Egyptian director Omar Al-Zuhairi, «Al-Sit» by the Sudanese director Suzanne Mirghani, and «The Gift» by the Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi.
The festival will also continue its cooperation with the European Union delegation to the UAE, where 3 films from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania were selected to be shown in the first Gulf screening, having previously won many awards from the most important international film festivals.
While the Executive Director of “Vision Cinema” Sultan Al-Marri stressed the festival’s keenness to implement the best health and safety conditions followed in the country, and to adhere to the necessary preventive and precautionary measures such as physical distancing, wearing masks, PCR examination, and showing a negative result through the application of the fort (green passage), to attend the event. Film events and shows, in order to preserve the public safety of the staff, guests and visitors of the festival.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news