Gulf Film Festival

The world's first Gulf Film Festival is coming to Dubai this month.


The event is the first of its kind and organisers hope it will provide a platform for regional film making.

The festival will be sponsored by Showtime Arabia and will take place between April 13 and 18.

In addition to the sponsorship, Showtime will showcase 30 Gulf films along with interviews and sound bites from their filmmakers.

The directors of the 30 selected films shown on the Showshasha channel will be given a cash boost from Showtime to help develop their talents.

Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, Showtime's President & CEO, said: "We are proud to support this great initiative which confirms our commitment to promoting the region's most promising talent.

"This region proves that it thrives with young talents in many areas; our role as a media company is to offer them the right environment to excel."


GFF first edition will be dedicated to the best in cinema from the Gulf countries - the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kingdom of Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Republic of Iraq and Republic of Yemen - along with select International films.

Masoud Amrallla Al Ali, Festival Director, GFF, said: "The Gulf Film Festival is a prominent platform for showcasing the regional cinematic talent and we are delighted that one of the leading networks is supporting our initiative by taking the finest Gulf films to a larger audience."


GFF aims to develop the local and regional film culture in the Gulf, creating greater opportunities for filmmakers from the Gulf to screen their films and develop future film projects