With every regional film festival comes another acronym to remember. We’ve got DIFF (Dubai), ADFF (Abu Dhabi) and DTFF (Doha). But since 2009, arguably the biggest mouthful of the bunch has been from the UAE’s Zayed University with ZUMEFF. The Zayed University Middle East Film Festival, which is being held at the university’s campus in Khalifa City today and tomorrow, will be screening shorts made by students from universities across the region.
“We’ve received around 10 films from 10 different countries,” says Salama Al Nealm, one of the festival’s organisers. “And we’ll be screening most of the films that we receive.”
From the films, five winners will be selected across a variety of categories, with prizes totalling Dh25,000 and one winner walking away with a scholarship to study at the Abu Dhabi New York Film Academy.
But perhaps the biggest event this time around for ZUMEFF will be the opening of the first UAE National Film Library and Archive within the university grounds. First announced last year, the project has been established to collate everything to do with the film industry across the country – including films, posters, catalogues, artwork and news stories before they were lost.
“It will house both films made in the UAE and films funded by the UAE,” adds Al Nealm. So as well as the likes of Sea Shadow, the archive will also store films such as The Help and Ghost Rider 2, which were funded by Image Nation.
• ZUMEFF will run today from 12pm to 7pm and tomorrow from 10.30am to 4pm, with the archive opening at 6pm followed by the awards. For more information, visit www.zumeff.com
Follow us on Facebook for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.
Follow us
[ @LifeNationalUAE ]
