Four new initiatives have also been announced as part of the new edition by Amer Salmeen Al Murry, Founder and Director General of the Festival.
The Al Ain Film Festival will host its third edition in Al Ain between 23rd – 27th of January 2021, under the slogan “Future Cinema”, and will screen a whopping 378 films this year. Four new initiatives have also been announced as part of the new edition by Amer Salmeen Al Murry, Founder and Director General of the Festival.
The festival will also screen European films, which have been successful at international festivals. The segment, which is to be held as part of the festival’s summer programme on weekends, will be themed on a different country each week. Participants will also have a chance to attend workshops organised by filmmakers.
The organisers have also announced the “Fareed Ramadhan” award for best screenplay for a feature-length Gulf film, which is intended to encourage local scriptwriters and honour the late Bahraini writer and screenwriter, Fareed Ramadhan, who played a prominent role in the first and second editions of the festival.
The festival organisers have also collaborated with the Abu Dhabi Festival to launch the “Abu Dhabi Festival Unproduced Screenplay” competition. Targeted at young Emirati scriptwriters, this competition will offer three prizes for the best three unproduced short screenplays with AED 20,000 for each of the three winning entries. The winners will be announced in June 2021 after an evaluation and selection process conducted by a special jury that includes Arab filmmakers and scriptwriters.
A number of artists will also be honoured at this edition including Sheikha Alyazia bint Nahyan, Emirati director Nujoom Al-Ghanem, and the late Bahraini writer and screenwriter Fareed Ramadhan.
Among the new initiatives that “Al Ain Film Festival” has also announced a competition entitled “Make Your Film in the Time of Corona”. The competition gives the filmmakers an opportunity to make a short film of three to 15 minutes around their life during the quarantine. Two awards have been allocated for this festival for best film and best idea.