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Al Ain Film Festival

Press release, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates:

The Festival in it’s 4th Edition will kick off in 23rd of January 2022, under the slogan “Future Cinema”.

Al Ain Film Festival kicks off in its 4th Edition, which will be held in Al Ain city, under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan member of the Executive Council, and in the presence of H.E. Sheikh Dr. Saeed bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, from 23rd to 27th January.

The Festival will display the most prominent local, GCC, Arab and international films, including exclusive shows on Al Ain city cinema screens.

The 4th Edition of the “Al Ain Film Festival” was announced, to include a number of new initiatives, various programs and agreements in the service of the “7th art” in the UAE, during a press conference held yesterday evening, attended by Amer Salmeen Al Murry, founder and general manager of the festival, Saeed Salmeen, art director of the World Cinema Program, Ivan Khadir, the Operation manger, and Sultan Amer, CEO of the organizing company “Cinema Vision Films.”

Amer Salmeen stated that “Al Ain Film Festival” will remain the most prominent platform for celebrating filmmakers in the region, including veterans and young talents, after the remarkable success achieved by the festival during the past 3 years, despite the crisis of the “Corona” pandemic, and its great impact on the artistic movement around the world. However, the festival was able to prove its presence and continuity and to attract the most distinguished Arab and European films, some of which were Oscars 2021 nominated, such as the Algerian “Heliopolis”, the Egyptian “When We Are Born” and the Tunisian “The Man Who Sold His Back”, in addition to technical agreements and initiatives aimed at to support Emirati filmmakers.

Official Competitions

Al-Murry pointed out that this year’s edition includes many unique films in the festival’s various competitions, especially the “Falcon Gulf Feature Film” competition, which competes for its grand prize with 4 Emirati films and 3 GCC films.

He stated that this year’s edition has attracted number of distinguished films, which have been carefully selected, for the enjoyment of cinema lovers, and for the benefit of the promising young talents, as it is scheduled to compete in the official festival competitions 47 films, in which there are 15 films in the “Falcon Emirati short Film,”. Also 15 films in “Falcon Gulf Feature Film and Falcon Gulf Feature Short Film”, 8 films in “Falcon Student Films” and 9 films in “Falcon Resident Films”.

“Classic Corner”

The director general of the festival revealed a new initiative that sheds light on the most prominent productions of short Emirati films that deserve to be shown within the “Classic Corner” because of the purposeful ideas it contains, and most of them were the real breakthrough for their filmmakers in the world of directing, including “Sabeel” by Khaled Mahmoud, “Bint Mariam” by Saeed Salmeen, «Tenbak» by Abdullah Hassan Ahmed, and «Door» by Walid Al-Shehhi.

Al-Murry noted that the main target of the “Classic Corner” is to highlight the most distinguished local short films, which are winners of important prizes in a number of festivals, To play the role of an educational platform for the young talents.

Encyclopedia of Emirati Cinema

Al-Murry stated that the “Encyclopedia of Emirati Cinema” will be launched in the 4th Edition of the Festival, which is an archival book that includes the history and stages of cinema development in the Emirates, its journey and achievements over the past 50 years, starting with the establishment of the first theaters and famous old cinema venues, the development of cinemas in the Emirates, and the beginnings of film production in the UAE and its development, whether for the short or Feature Film, with the aim of making the encyclopedia as a reference for researchers, specialists, creators, students and all filmmakers.

Honorees

Al-Murry revealed that the festival will continue to celebrate the most prominent filmmakers in the region, for their artistic career, which is rich of many achievements, such as the late Kuwaiti producer, writer and director Khaled Al-Siddiq, who was one of the pioneers of the cinematic movement in Kuwait, where he produced and directed the first Kuwaiti feature film entitled “Bas Ya Bahar” in 1972, and won many international and Arab awards and honors, Emirati producer and actor Sultan Al Neyadi, who dedicated his life and artistic achievements for the sake of Emirati art, and film critic Tariq Al-Shennawi, who is considered one of the most distinguished film critics in the region, who is a winner of many awards for his writings, that had a positive impact on the Arab and Gulf cinema scene.

Cinema of the World Movies

For his part, Saeed Salmeen pointed out during the conference 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 by their countries to the Oscars, to have the opportunity to be shown on the festival’s screens, including “Feathers” by Egyptian director Omar Al-Zuhairi. And “El-Set” by Sudanese director Suzanne Marghani, and “The Present” by Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi.

“Abu Dhabi Festival Unproduced Screenplay“

Al-Murry indicated that Al Ain Film Festival is returning to cooperate with Abu Dhabi Festival, as the Al Ain Film Festival strategic cultural partner, in the “Abu Dhabi Festival for Unproduced Screenplay” competition, and said: “We are pleased with this partnership through which this creative initiative targeting young Emirati talents, to create a new generation of writers who can enrich the local content with new topics presented to the cinema. The director general of the Al Ain Film Festival thanked the organizers of the Abu Dhabi Festival, which is considered one of the most prominent festivals that effectively contributes to enrich the cultural scene in the region, for this fruitful cooperation that aims to create a unique creative case by focusing on young talents, explaining that the fruits of this cooperation will appear in this year’s edition, by showing the films that won the competition in the 3rd edition of the Al Ain Film Festival.

On this occasion, Huda Ibrahim Al-Khamis, founder of the Abu Dhabi Group for Culture and Arts, founder and art director of the Abu Dhabi Festival, said:“The Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) is pleased to continue to partner with the Al Ain Film Festival for the second year in support of the development of the UAE film industry.

The Al Ain Film Festival celebrates In its fourth year and its  ongoing success is an integral part of the nation’s vision for the growth of filmmaking.

Throughout our 25 years, ADMAF has actively served the UAE’s creative youth to nurture and encourage them to succeed.

In our ongoing endeavors to nurture cinema in the UAE, our  collaboration with the Al Ain Film Festival supports and cultivates emerging filmmakers in the Emirates through professional development programmes in screenwriting, directing, producing and acting.

ADMAF also recognized excellence with awards for screenwriting at last year’s Al Ain Film Festival, and we look forward with great enthusiasm to support these efforts.

Safety Precautions

At the end of his speech, Al-Murry confirmed that the 4th Edition of the festival which will be held in Al Ain City, will adhere to all the precautionary measures of Covid-19 followed in the country, in order to ensure public safety.