The Dublin Arabic Film Festival, now into its seventh edition of featuring Arabic films here in Ireland, will be moving online next month. A staple of Dublin’s usual celebration of international cinema over the last few years, this year the festival will be going ahead, spotlighting Middle Eastern filmmaking talent on the big screen through your smaller one.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jim Sheridan and Film Director Zahara Moufid’s annual Dublin Arabic Film Festival (DAFF) is set to run from the December 11th to 13th. As part of this year’s festival, five feature length Arab films will be shown on the festival’s website, available HERE. DAFF will also be hosting a virtual event during the festival, with the Chester Beatty in Dublin and the French Embassy both set to show a selection Arabic and French movies.
Zahara Moufid and Jim Sheridan established DAFF in 2014 in a bid to allow Irish audiences the opportunity to enjoy some of the best new and classic Arab films ever made.
An additional element has been added to this year’s festival, ‘The Jim Sheridan International Short Film Competition’. created by Moufid and Sheridan, the competition aims to inspire young filmmakers globally. Aspiring filmmakers are invited to submit a 20-minute, original short film which explores the themes of Arabic culture, human rights, injustices, immigrant life, displacement, or which helps to create awareness of the plight of underprivileged women and girls.
These short films will then become available to be viewed online between January 22 and January 24, 2021, with the winners announced on Facebook Live on the eve of the final day. The overall Short Film Competition winner will win a one-on-one virtual mentoring session with Jim Sheridan and will automatically qualify to screen their work at the Waterford Film Festival in 2021. More info on this competition is available from the Dublin Arabic Film Festival HERE.
Programme information for the festival will be available soon.