Sixth edition of the Gulf Film Festival to be held from April 11-17, 2013

Dubai's non-profit annual cultural event celebrates and encourages excellence in Arab cinema, aiming to transform and expand the opportunities for regional filmmakers, whilst serving as an international destination that shines a spotlight on the very best of cinema and creating a forum for Arab filmmakers to develop alliances with major production studios worldwide.

The Festival engages both professional and up-and-coming filmmakers with key competitions including The Gulf Competition, Gulf Students' Shorts Competition and the International Competition for Short Films with prize money of over half a million dirham's to be awarded to the winners. Further details will be forthcoming throughout the year and the Festival will be accepting submissions from November 25. The Festival is also home to multiple out-of-competition segments including an 'In Focus' segment, master classes, nightly industry discussions and other special events.

Earlier this year the fifth edition of GFF screened 155 films from 40 countries and over 100 films participated in the Official Gulf Feature Film Competition and the Official Gulf Short Film Competition.

The event attracted a significant global audience, including a line-up of acclaimed filmmakers and actors including veteran Bahraini filmmaker Bassam Al-Thawadi, French filmmaker Gerard Courant and legendary Iranian actor Behrouz Vossoughi.

Masoud Amralla Al Ali, GFF Festival Director, said: "The GFF continues to go from strength to strength and the growing number of quality films from the region and around the world that we showcase every year is a testament to the success of the Festival and a positive indicator of the regional film industry attracting more talent. This year GFF films have been screened at several international film festivals which has further demonstrated the incredible work of seasoned and emerging filmmakers. We are pleased to announce the dates for the sixth Gulf Film Festival and we look forward to welcoming and showcasing a diverse and unique selection of films with the rest of the world."

Nurturing emerging talent from the region and cultivating opportunities for creative projects are GFF's core objectives, the sixth edition of the Festival will focus further on strengthening industry opportunities to drive the global and regional outreach of Arabic films and establish GFF as a destination for industry professionals to do business. In 2012, GFF launched the Gulf Script Market for Short Film, an industry initiative of the Festival which offers support to budding filmmakers to turn their scripts into films. The inaugural Script Market saw over 100 submissions, with some chosen projects partnered with directors and producers and currently in production.