Dubai: More than 43 films from the Gulf states, including 20 made in the UAE, will be screened to thousands of movie enthusiasts in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa this year, thanks to the Gulf Film Festival (GFF).
The Dubai-based annual cinema event, which offers filmmakers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE a dedicated platform, completed its second edition earlier this year.
Film festivals around the world, from the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania, the Ahmedabad International Film Festival in India to the upcoming Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia's Gold Coast, have included significant numbers of GFF films in their repertoire for 2009.
In the last two months alone, 43 films from the Gulf Film Festival have screened at global festivals.
Best talent
Commenting on its unprecedented success, GFF Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali said: "The Gulf Film Festival is working hard to provide an avenue to celebrate and encourage the best regional product and talent, and to bring our world a little closer through the art of cinema. Today, the results of our efforts are evident across the globe, and we are delighted by the positive response to our films in every continent."
Some of the UAE films featured in GFF are: The Circle, Henna, Baab (Door), The Sound of Life, Only A Beginning, Young Sadness, The Half Heart, Finding Mr and Mrs Right, Amal's Cloud, Bint Mariam, Mountain Shaikh, Bint Al Nokhitha, Paradise Evening, Tenbak, and Wedad.
