First GCC film festival to be held in Doha Wednesday, 22 February 2012 00:58

DOHA: Qatar is hosting the first ever GCC Film Festival next week at the Qatar National Theatre, marking another milestone in the field of entertainment in the country and the Gulf region.

The Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari yesterday stressed the event was an important development in the world of filmmaking in the Gulf.

Doha’s hosting of the festival comes in line with the agreements carried out during the meeting of GCC Ministers of Culture held in Abu Dhabi in October last year.

To run for a week, the festival will screen a selection of short and documentary films of the participating countries including Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, and Oman.

The best Film, Direction, Script, Cinematography, Picture Editing as well as Best Actor will be honoured in an awards ceremony which will also give tribute to the pioneers of filmmakers in Gulf, the Cultural Minister said.

Each of the participating countries will showcase a total of four films, two of which are feature films while the other two are documentaries.

The four Qatari films will be screened during the opening day of the Festival, to be followed by a panel discussion with the Qatari directors, Dr Al Kuwari added.

A number of Arab stars and artists in film making industry and prominent Arab critics have been invited including Egyptian directors Khalid Yusuf and Khairy Bishara, Egyptian actor Nour Al Shereef, film critic Khairya Al Bishlawi, and Kuwaiti actor Mohammad Al Mansour.

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