Abu Dhabi International Book Fair to screen 14 Emirati films

This year's Abu Dhabi International Book Fair has a new Black Box cinema programme featuring a line-up of Emirati movies and filmmaking workshops.

A scene from Rafed Al Harthi’s Feeding Five Hundred, which will be screened at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. Courtesy TCA Abu Dhabi

Fourteen Emirati films will be screened at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) under the new Black Box cinema programme.

The Emirati filmmaker Nawaf Al Janahi (Sea Shadow, 2011) chose the line-up, which includes 2012's Daddy ABC, Half Emirati, Feeding Five Hundred, plus Ali F Mostafa's Under the Sun (2005) and Al Janahi's Mirrors of Silence (2006).

The festival has also introduced new workshops to encourage budding filmmakers.

“We know the UAE needs this kind of cooperation so we can reach more people and have more influence,” says Al Janahi. “We need more people in the UAE to learn to write screenplays, so we have three workshops on screenwriting. There’s also a seminar on Emirati filmmaking, plus a workshop on film criticism – there are only three prominent film critics writing in Arabic and we need more.”

Mohamed Al Shehhi, the director of research and publishing at the National Library, said: “This is the first experience of its kind for us. We want more intertwinement between books and films, as exists in other countries. This book fair thrives on producing innovative ideas and to do that we need to diversify, to be up to the level of book fairs such as in London and Frankfurt.

“We would like to see more Emirati cinema based on books. We hope this collaboration will continue in the coming years.”

• The full film schedule will be available soon at adbookfair.com. ADIBF runs from April 30 to May 5, with free entry to the fair and film screenings