Dubai International Film Festival to Return in December 2027 With Arab Cinema Focus
Dubai International Film Festival will be revived on December 8, 2027, with a new Arab cinema-focused format, the Dubai Media Council has announced.
The Dubai International Film Festival will be revived with a new edition scheduled to begin on December 8, 2027, the emirate's media authorities have announced.
The relaunch was announced by Mona Ghanem Al Marri, vice chairperson and managing director of the Dubai Media Council, during the Arab Media Summit. In her address, Al Marri said the festival's new format would place Arab cinema at its centre and would seek to strengthen Dubai's position as a hub for film and television production.
She described the revival as a fresh chapter for an event that first began in 2004 and grew into the leading film festival in the Middle East. The festival was shut down in 2018, reportedly so that government funding could be redirected towards the Dubai Expo.
Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who managed the Dubai festival and later played a key role in launching Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Film Festival as its managing director, is no longer involved in the relaunch. She recently stepped down from her managing director role.
Further details about the leadership and management of the revived festival have not yet been announced.
The festival's earlier editions drew significant international attention. For its 2017 run, it presented 18 Arab features, more than a third of which were world premieres, alongside regional premieres of major global releases, including 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi', which closed the event. The 2017 edition also hosted delegations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Golden Globes.