Gulf Film Festival awards competition winners

 The third edition of the Gulf Film Festival, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), today, awarded the winners of the Student and Official Competitions and Emirati Short Film Script Competition.
Gulf Film Festival, this year, had screened 194 films from 41 countries. Entry was free for the public and there was enthusiastic turnout for the 94 screenings – some of them featuring a collection of shorts and documentaries - held over the past six days.
The in-competition sections of Gulf Film Festival offered in all a prize bag of AED485,000 to professionals, students and Emirati script-writers. Entries in the Official Competition were invited in three categories: Feature Films, Short Films, and Documentaries. Students compete in short films and documentaries only.
In all 54 films competed in the Official Competition for best feature (7), documentary (9) and shorts (38). The Student competition featured 33 entries for the best documentary (12) and shorts (21).
The film jury was headed by accomplished Moroccan filmmaker Jillali Ferhati. He was joined by Saudi Arabian filmmaker and critic Mohammed Aldhahri; Emirati actor Ibrahim Salim; Yemeni filmmaker Khadija Al-Salami and Artistic Director of the International Film Festival Bratislava in Slovakia Matthieu Darras. The jury for the Script Competition comprised Qatari scriptwriter Widad Al Kuwairi, Saudi columnist Badriya Abdullah Al Bashar and UAE writer Amina Abu-Shehab.