Gulf Film Festival Appointed Official GCC Submission Organisation For 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards

GFF Nominates 7 Films to Represent GCC at Annual Awards

The Gulf Film Festival (GFF) today announced its appointment as the Official Submission Organization for the Gulf region for the 2008 and 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), the region’s highest film accolade

The Gulf Film Festival was invited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) and APSA to submit eligible films from the GCC for consideration in the second annual awards, to be held in Queensland, Australia, on November 11.

“The agreement between GFF and APSA will facilitate long term cultural and creative exchange and development of professional business partnerships between our two cultural institutions. To that end, GFF and APSA have collaborated to showcase cinematic brilliance from the GCC region and Yemen to an international audience,” commented Abdulhamid Juma, Chairman of GFF.

GFF has nominated 3 feature films and 4 documentaries that were screened at the inaugural Festival, representing Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The selected feature films include “Four Girls,” by acclaimed Bahraini director Hussain Abbas Al Hulaibi; “One More Chance,” by Kuwait’s Hasan Abdal; and “Sabbah Allil” by Mamoun Bonni from Saudi Arabia. The UAE’s “Al Mureed,” by Nujoom Al Ghanem; “Saudis in America,” by Fahmi Farahat from KSA; “Seeing through the Sand,” by Noor Al Dabbagh and “When the People Spoke- Part Two” by Amer Al Zuhair from Kuwait represent the nominated documentaries. 

Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Festival Director for GFF said, “We are pleased that GFF was recognized as an authority on our region’s burgeoning cinema movement despite having only recently launched. Although the festival itself is only a year old, the artistic energy and infrastructure for cinema have been developing for over a decade, and the fruits of this labour can be seen in the 7 excellent films we were able-and proud-to recommend for this prestigious international screening. As momentum gathers around our strongest cinematic artists, we can be sure that Gulf cinema will be a fixture of award programmes and film festivals worldwide.”

Chairman of APSA, Des Power, said:  “We are delighted to welcome the Gulf Film Festival as the Official Submission Organisation for the Gulf region.  The film industry of the Gulf is emerging as a powerful and creative voice and we are honoured to have its filmmakers represented so strongly in the 2008 APSAs.”

Following the success of last year’s inaugural Awards, APSA will continue to produce television programs in collaboration with CNN International to be broadcast to its global audience. These programs will provide significant exposure for the region’s film cultures, films, filmmakers, nominees and winners of the 2008 Awards.

The independent APSA Nominations Council comprising distinguished international film industry members will decide the final five nominees in each Award category for judging by the international Jury. Academy-Award nominated director Bruce Beresford is President of the APSA 2008 Jury.

Selection and submission of films will be conducted through an official submission organization in each country. Every country or area of the Asia Pacific region is eligible to submit films across four film categories; feature, animation, documentary and children’s.

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