The 14th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) will run from 6-13 December, 2017 and submissions are now open for the Dubai Film Connection, the co-production market for Arab filmmaker’s part of the highly successful Dubai Film Market (DFM), the business counterpart of DIFF.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the DFC has enjoyed a decade of success discovering and presenting projects from emerging and established writers, directors and producers from the Arab world to industry professionals around the world. Having showcased more than 135 fiction and non-fiction film projects in development to regional and international industry decision makers of which 56 have been completed.
Since its inception in 2007 the DFC has witnessed a substantial improvement in the quality, creativity and originality of content from the Arab world and has been crucial in creating opportunities for growth and collaboration between the Arab world and the international film industry. Notable successes include; Divines directed by Houda Benyamina which screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Ghost Hunting directed by Raed Andoni which picked up the top documentary prize earlier this year at Berlin International Film Festival, When I Saw You directed by Annemarie Jacir which was selected as the Palestinian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar and won Best Asian Film at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, NETPAC award and Haifaa Al-Mansour’s multi-award winning and BAFTA nominated hit Wadjda.
Shivani Pandya, DIFF’s Managing Director says: “The future of the Arab film industry and the festival rests on the combined efforts of finding talent in the region and providing a business platform for filmmakers to network with leading figures from the industry who can become involved in the projects and provide or give access to financial support. Over the last 10 years, we have seen an increase in the number of Arab films featuring at major film festivals and many are securing theatrical releases and enjoying commercial success. We are thrilled to demonstrate every year at DIFF the great depth and variety of the region’s talent which continues to emerge through the Dubai Film Connection Programme and look forward to the next 10 years.”
The DFC is now open for submissions for feature-length fiction and non-fiction projects in development by directors of Arab nationality or origin. The co-production market introduces Arab filmmakers to regional and international film backers and organisations over three days of intensive meetings during DIFF. Deadline for submission is August 1st, 2017 and details are available at www.diff.ae.