It's been almost half a year in the making, but the results of the inaugural Arab Film Studio short film competition are finally ready to be unveiled.
Since January, five young Emirati filmmakers have been engaged in an intensive training programme under the guidance of several industry mentors, with numerous weekends taken over by courses on scriptwriting, budgeting, make-up, sound, production, post-production and marketing.
While the whole group has gone through the various stages of the competition, there's only going to be one grand winner, who will receive a Dh50,000 development deal to produce a short film with Image Nation Abu Dhabi (owned by Abu Dhabi Media Company, which also owns The National).
The result will be based on the abilities shown in the different stages and, most importantly, the contestant's final 10-minute short-film project, which will be screened at a private awards ceremony on Wednesday night at the Yas Viceroy on Yas Island.
Launched shortly after last year's Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the Arab Film Studio short film competition - a partnership between Image Nation Abu Dhabi and twofour54 tadreeb - is one of several initiatives aimed at finding and fostering local filmmaking talent, and with the success of this one it's likely to become an annual event.
But whatever the results, given that the group includes Omar Butti, a TV presenter for Dubai One and Khalid Al Abdulla, a regular face at the Gulf Film Festival, it's doubtful that this will be the last we see of them.
The Arab Film Studio Awards will be held at the Yas Viceroy on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night
