378 films and 4 new initiatives at the Al Ain Film Festival
Under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan member of the Executive Council, the Al Ain Film Festival which will take place in Al Ain city, between 23rd – 27th of January 2021, under the slogan “Future Cinema”. The festival continues to support local and Gulf filmmakers by implementing new initiatives, various programs, distinctive shows and agreements, in the service of “the 7th Art”, to be the most prominent platform for discovering and presenting the best productions and talents of cinema in the region.
The Festival was announced during a press conference held yesterday, attended by Amer Salmeen Al Murry, Founder and Director General of the Festival, Hani Al Shaibani, Art Director, and Saeed Salmeen, who joined the Festival management to take over as Art Director of the program “Cinema Of The World.
The Third Edition of Al Ain Film Festival 2021 offers the audience of the “Golden Screen” a bouquet of distinctive events, which celebrate the most prominent filmmakers, of professionals and fresh young talents over a period of 5 days. A bunch of distinctive European films, that have met with success in Europe and some of international film festivals, will be displayed during the Festival
Fareed Ramadhan Award
“Fareed Ramadhan” award for the best screenplay for a long Gulf film, is one of the new and distinctive awards that Amer Salmeen Al Murry revealed during the conference, and was intended to encourage the scriptwriters as well as to honor the spirit of the late Bahraini writer and screenwriter, Fareed Ramadhan. He had a prominent presence in the first and the second editions of the festival, and his writings have enriched Bahraini and Gulf cinema in general.
The General Manager of Al Ain Festival expressed his pleasure to collaborate, in this edition, with Abu Dhabi Festival, as the Festival’s strategic cultural partner, for a new competition entitled “Abu Dhabi Festival Unproduced Screenplay”, Targeting young Emirati scriptwriters, it aims to create a new generation, that can enrich local content with fresh unique topics presented to cinema. Three prizes have been allocated to this purpose, best three un-produced screenplays (short film), at a value of 20 thousand dirhams each, with support of Abu Dhabi Festival. The winners will be disclosed in June 2021 after the evaluation and selection processes that will be conducted by a special jury for this competition, consisting of a group of Arab filmmakers and scriptwriters.
The Festival manager revealed that in the new edition of “Al Ain Film Festival”, and as a part of “Honoring Artists’ Achievements” program, a group of art professionals will be honored, for their artistic career full of many achievements in the world of film industry, and their great contributions to the advancement of the “Seventh Art”. They are Sheikha Alyazia Bint Nahyan, Emirati director Nujoom Al-Ghanem, and the late Bahraini writer and screenwriter Fareed Ramadhan.
Competitions and surprises
Among the new initiatives that Al Ain Film Festival is witnessing in its 3rd edition, is an exceptional competition entitled “Make Your Film in the Time of Corona”. It is a competition that gives the filmmakers an opportunity to benefit from the quarantine, by filming a short film, with a duration of 3 to 15 minutes, revolving around Details of daily life in light of the quarantine imposed by the Corona pandemic, and the competition that was announced in the summer of 2020 was met with great participation by Emiratis and residents of various nationalities in the country. For this competition, the festival allocated two awards, the first for the (best film) and the second for the (best idea)
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