Since its inception in 2004, the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) has become the leading film festival in the region.
Abul Hamid Juma, one of Diff’s founders and its chairman, says the annual event had to quickly expand across many fields.
“Festivals take a long time to shape, and thirteen years is a very, very short time”, he said. “Because we are here in Dubai, we want to shorten the learning curve, and we want to be at the top. That’s what Dubai wishes to be.”
Juma describes this year’s edition as the biggest and greatest the Middle East has seen so far.
There are more than 155 films being screened at the festival, from 60 countries in over 40 spoken languages.
There’s also a lot of diversity. In the Arab cinema selection, for instance, 25 films this year have been directed by women. Out of 13 feature films in the programme, six are by Emirati talent. The festival has also aided the financing of 15 Arab films, 11 of which are part of the programme.
Mohammad Azzam, one of the Senior Marketing Executives at Diff who has been working behind the scenes since 2008, said: “I’ve noticed that there’s a trend at Diff: almost all the films in our programme are Oscar contenders. Over the years, we’ve gotten better and better at selecting the films and getting them to Dubai audiences.”
The festival’s growth is not only appreciated by Dubai film fans but also by professionals; more than 3,300 delegates are attending this year, compared to the 500 that visited in the early 2000s.
Not only has the festival grown in terms of the film market as a whole, but the technology on display has gotten an update, too. One of the most exciting introductions to the film festival this year is the concept of Virtual Reality (VR) films.
As Azzam said, DIFF is “one of the first film festivals to curate a dedicated programme for VR”.
Hassan Kiyany, a Virtual Reality Programme Assistant working with Diff, believes this monumental shift in VR and film, offers great potential for local creatives.
“It is an inspiration for filmmakers and film enthusiasts in the region”, said Kiyany.
He is a filmmaker and editor in Emirati cinema who is working with a team to create new VR films.
The Diff “seed”, planted in 2004, has now “flourished”, as Juma put it, with the festival going from presenting Lifetime Achievement Awards to Yash Chopra and Morgan Freeman in 2005 to cementing its position as a serious contender for world premieres. This year saw the debut of Bollywood film Befikre.
Juma concluded “the wheel is turning”, and it looks like it will continue to turn for a long time.
— The Young Journalist Award (YJA) at Diff is a training programme for high school and university students who are aspiring writers and reporters. Eight students are competing at the festival this year. One winner will secure a monthlong internship with Gulf News.
