Film festival for students by students: ZUMEFF open for entries

The Zayed University Middle East Film Festival, ZUMEFF, is now open for entries for the 2016 edition until March 1 from across the Middle East and North Africa.

ZUMEFF is a Middle East wide film festival for students by students. It was established in 2010 as a graduation project by two Zayed University students, Al Yazyah Al Falasi, Reema Majed and Faculty Director Alia Yunis, to showcase cinematographic works for students and encourage young filmmakers in the region.

Now in its 7th edition, the festival serves as an upper level festival management class in the university’s College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University. The two-day festival will take place on May 1 and 2 at Zayed University headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

"Participation is limited to students who are enrolled or were enrolled in the past year in an educational institution in the Middle East, including Turkey, Iran, and North Africa or students with Middle Eastern origin who are enrolled or were enrolled in the past year in an educational institution worldwide," Sascha Ritter, Instructor at the College of Communications and Media Sciences, said.

"The total length of each film should not exceed 30 minutes and all submitted films must be high quality copies. Participants should send their submissions either via Google Drive, Vimeo, or Snail Mail. The top five films in each category will be evaluated by industry professionals on the following criteria: overall effectiveness, innovation, and execution," Ritter added.

Prizes will be awarded to the Best Documentary Film, Best Narrative Film, Best Animation, Grand Prize Best of the Festival, and New York Film Academy/Zayed University Middle East Film Festival Aspiring Filmmaker Award.

Last year, the festival showed 65 films from more than 40 universities and 16 countries from the Middle East. The finalists were from seven countries including Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt, Cyprus and the UAE.

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