UAE Cinema: Film Festivals, Screenings, Archives and Research

Venues

We've created a spreadsheet of cinemas, cultural centres, and universities that screen repertory film, sorted by Emirate, including links to websites and social media. Many of these are seasonal, so we recommend signing up for newsletters.

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Film Festivals

Many film festivals have come and gone, most notably the Abu Dhabi and Dubai international film festivals, but new ones appear each year and we have documented both current and defunct festivals in a spreadsheet containing the following data:

• Emirate

• Start Year

• End Year (if defunct)

• Month (if still active)

• Hyperlink to festival website

• Links to social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X)

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Archives​​

• Samir Farid Collection of Egyptian Film (images) at Akkasah, NYU Abu Dhabi
  I (Jasmine Soliman) worked on this collection during my time as Collections Management Archivist at Akkasah: Photography Archive. The collection is unqiue both in content and in being publicly accessible - approximately a third has been catalogued and digiitized and the remainder is under process, but can be consulted by visting the archive on appointment.
  The collection contains circa 3,000 image negatives obtained by Samir Farid (December 1, 1943 – April 4, 2017) from various photographic studios and individual photographers. The negatives include images from 265 Egyptian films produced between 1937-1988. 

• Cinema and Filmmaking in the Gulf and Mashreq at NYU Abu Dhabi Library

  • Abu Dhabi Film Festival

  • Hiner Saleem

  • Kamal Aljafari

  • Vardan Hovhannisyan

• UAE National Film Library and Archive at Zayed University

  • Films

  • Film Festival Materials

  •  Dubai International Film Festival

  • Abu Dhabi Film Festival

  • Zayed University Middle East Film Festival

  • Middle East International Film Festival (Abu Dhabi)

  • Gulf Film Festival

  • Emirates Film Competition

  • News and Media Clippings

  • Press Kits and Film Scripts

  • Ephemeral Materials

  • Posters

Articles and Research

• Dubai's Cinemas 1970s-1980s, Len Chapman

• An Incomplete History of UAE Cinemas - a three part essay by Hind Mezaina

  • Part I​

  • Part II

  • Part III

• El Dorado Cinema Closure, The National

• Cinema of the United Arab Emirates, Wikipedia

• The political economy of Khaleeji cinema: Historical developments of Arab Gulf film industries, Abdulrahman Alghannam

• Old Cinemas of the UAE in Pictures, The National

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Museums/Exhibits

• Al Mahatta Museum - on the site of the RAF base and cinema

• History of Cinema Museum, Dubai (temporarily closed) - a collection built over 35 years by Akram Miknas, a Bahraini/Lebanese businessman

• Art Dubai - Cinema

• Bollywood Superstars: A Short Story of Indian Cinema (Jan-June, 2023) - Louvre Abu Dhabi

• Cinemas of the UAE - private collection of Ammar Al Attar (Oct-Nov 2018), NYU Abu Dhabi

If we've missed a screening venue or film festival, please submit a form and we will add to the spreadsheets.