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International film festivals started as an expression of people's need to communicate.

It all began in 1932, when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini decided to hold an international film event, and the Venice Film Festival was born.

A few years later, France took the same step, establishing the Cannes film festival, which was followed by several others around the world, marking the history of cinema.

There are now more than 1,000 film festivals around the world, not all of which are international or major events. Most of these events are local or regional, or subject-oriented.

Not all of them are festivals, as well. Some are cinema trade events, which attract producers, distributors, and movie theatre owners.

Maintaining status

The commercial or industrial side of film festivals became a necessity felt by some of the major festivals around the world. This is why competition between Berlin, Cannes and Venice festivals is not just to acquire the largest number of new and great movies, but to acquire the largest portion of cinema companies that want to sell or buy.

Multi-million deals are normal, and the deals that take place in Cannes, with an estimated value of more than $100 million (Dh367 million), are proof that the festival is doing fine. It is still the first ahead of other festivals.

Yet, regardless of the sales figures in Cannes, Toronto or Berlin, the cinema community still considers the official movie list as the main indicator to the success of a festival. This is what makes Cannes so desperate to maintain its status, as any deficiency would mean profit for other festivals.
Parts of a whole

If this was the case, the question that arises is, does a festival recover its costs? In other words, what are festivals held for, and what do hosting countries benefit from?

The answer is specific to each festival.

One can ask such questions only if a festival fails to achieve its targets, or did not have the budget to secure success, but most film festivals achieve their goals and more.

Everyone benefits from such festivals including hotels, shipping companies, insurance companies, taxis and restaurants.
However, the first prize is confirming the hosting country's status as an active country in the cinema industry. Cinema has an impact on a country's economy and culture. This is why governments have a strong urge to make their festivals a success.

Ambitions

Two days into the festival, many people want to know all details starting from the treatment of guests at the airport, who attended what, and most importantly: was it a success?

Success and failure standards are based on attendance, number of films, number of first shows, as well as the country's administrative and logistic ability to carry out such a mission.

Dubai achieved that step in the first two years of the festival, and will really be taking off this year, fully realising that the aim is not to maintain, but to keep climbing.

Does anyone think that DIFF can excel over the other three major international festivals? Even if this assumption is legitimate, that does not make it realistic.

Does anyone think that this festival can join the other three, and become the fourth major cinema event? Yes, this is more realistic.