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28 March 2024

Tropfest Arabia reels in the action in Abu Dhabi

Tens of thousands of Sydneysiders turn out to watch the 16 finalists of the 19th Tropfest Short Flim Festival in Sydney. Tropfest is the world's largest short film festival. (AFP)

Published
By Bindu Suresh Rai

The latest film festival to hit our shores is Tropfest, Australia’s most popular short film competition, which will be held in Abu Dhabi come November thanks to the capital’s media content creation unit, Twofour54.

Tropfest Arabia was announced at the annual event in Sydney yesterday, with Facebook pages and Twitter accounts debuting online shortly after.
Tropfest founder John Polson called filmmakers in 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa to start pulling together seven-minute short films for the inaugural November event.
“As this industry continues to develop, so too does the need to provide budding filmmakers with a platform to showcase their creative talents. We hope that the introduction of Tropfest Arabia will do just that,” Polson said, as reported by “The Hollywood Reporter”.
The event will be similar to the format of Tropfest Australia, which has been running to large crowds for the past 19 years. 
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Short filmmakers submit a film of no more than seven minutes that contains the Tropfest signature item, to show that it has been made specifically for the competition. 
The signature item for first running of Tropfest Arabia will be ‘Star’, which was tweeted earlier today by the organisers on microblogging site, Twitter.com
@TropfestArabia added: “Entry submission opens in late March till Sept 22 online at Tropfestarabia.com.
“Judging Oct 1-12 [sic] finalists selected by specialist jury announced on Oct 16. Films screened @TropfestArabia #AbuDhabi in Nov [sic].”
It is unclear if the 16 finalists will be announced during the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which usually runs during the first 10 days in October. 
Twofour54 CEO Wayne Borg said the Tropfest concept fitted perfectly with the Emirates city’s drive to become a Middle East content creation hub.
In a statement, he said: “We believe that we share a common mission in our efforts to help content creators realise their potential. There is an abundance of talent in North Africa and the Middle East. Since short films are seen as the entry point to the film industry, we believe that this grass roots festival will provide a unique platform for emerging film makers.”
Polson and Borg said they were expecting Tropfest Arabia to attract an initial audience of around 7,000 to 10,000.
Damon Gameau, the winner of Tropfest 2011, will be on the judging panel for the inaugural Arabia fest. 
Who can participate?
Participants in Tropfest Arabia must be a national of the Middle East and North Africa region including theUAE, Algeria, Bahrain , Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Entrants must conform to the religious, cultural and political sensitivities of the region and films must be appropriate for public screening in Abu Dhabi.
When Emirates24|7 quizzed @TropfestArabia why the event was not open to expats residing in the region, no response was forthcoming at the time.
The Hollywood Reporters stated prizes on offer for Tropfest Arabia include cash prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000, a visit to Los Angeles for a week of meetings with the senior executives from the film industry, a trip to Australia to take part in Tropfest 2012, and a host of other opportunities set to encourage filmmakers.
Tropfest has also been running in New York for the last four years and Polson hinted discussions were under way with various partners to hold the festival in Shangahi, Mexico and London as well.
Usually, the event draws in a panel of celebrity judges, with past names including Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, John Woo, Elijah Wood and Phil Noyce. Luminaries George Miller, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe are patrons of the event.