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28 March 2024

Third Gulf Film Festival opens in Abu Dhabi

Published
By Wam

The Third Gulf Film Festival opened on Sunday at Al Thuraya Hall in Rotana Beach Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, who is also the patron, opened the festival which is organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development in collaboration with the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The festival will run for five days and will see the participation of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the hosts UAE. It will display documentaries from the Gulf, narrative and short movies. The festival includes the following awards for the best long documentary, short documentary, filming of a documentary movie, narrative movie, narrative short movie, narrative long movie, filming of a narrative movie, soundtrack, and best actor and actress.

Sheikh Nahyan honoured a number of artistes from the Gulf, directors Ali Mustafa from the UAE, and Eva Dawood from Bahrain; Saleh Zaal from Oman, Ahmed Al Mulla from Saudi Arabia, and Khalifa Al Muraikhi from Qatar, along with director Ahmed Al Khallaf from Kuwait.

"The film industry in the Gulf region is showing promise in light of the socio-economic mobility in the region. This requires documenting and highlighting of cinematic art," Sheikh Nahyan said.

Film art has become a subject of active study in all countries of the region. This avid interest has been triggered off by a major boom in the digital technologies that contribute to film production at reasonable costs, he added.

The minister thanked all members of the jury, and wished the festival all success in becoming an example of joint efforts.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by over 150 GCC film directors, producers and artistes, as well as Afra Al Saberi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, and Abul Hamid Juma, Chairman of Dubai International Film Festival.