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More than 70 young filmmakers in Bahrain are set to take part in a first-of-its-kind festival next week that will highlight their creative works.
The inaugural edition of the Student Film Festival will be held at Cineco in Oasis Mall Juffair on May 28, and include a red carpet event and an award ceremony.
The event was the brainchild of Bahrain Polytechnic student Mujtaba Hasan, who found the need for a platform to showcase works of aspiring and ambitious film-makers across the country, engage with industry experts and enhance Bahrain’s emerging film industry.
“My classmates and I have made several films together with no place to screen them,” Mr Hasan, who is the festival director, told the GDN.
“The films were not up to international standards owing to the lack of funding, but they still deserved to be screened because a lot of passion and work went into the creations,” he added.
“They took months to make, but we only screened them once in front of a small audience, which was frustrating.
“We felt there was a gap that needed to be filled, and so I came up with an idea to start a festival to showcase more short films by students and I am happy that our efforts bore fruit.”
With feedback and encouragement from their professors and advisers, Mr Hasan and five other students – operations manager Marwa Zainuddin, event runner Ali Busaleh, volunteer co-ordinator Ebrahim Saleh, technical manager Husam Albalushi and graphic designer Abdulla Raikhi – struck a deal with a number of sponsors to finally make their dream festival a reality in January.
There are three advisers involved – entrepreneur Eman Alsabah, Youth Affairs Ministry local youth activities chief Hamad Abdulla and award-winning film-maker Hashim Sharaf. Mr Abdulla is also an acclaimed film-maker and has won several awards.
Rather than just include student submissions from Bahrain Polytechnic, the team opened up registration to youngsters from all private and public higher education institutes in Bahrain.
The organisers ended up getting a lot of attention and submissions in their first year, with 20 short films – each ranging from five to 15 minutes – received from students across Bahrain.
Nine submissions – all Bahraini films worked on by around 70 students in total – were shortlisted for screening.
The five top films will be honoured and given awards on the day of the festival, which will open with a red carpet event at 6pm.
Film screenings are set to take place at 7.20pm, and the awards ceremony at 9.20pm.
Mr Hasan said the quality of film submissions far surpassed his expectations and believes participants can go on to achieve bigger dreams.
“I am very proud and impressed how good the films are, there is a lot of talent in Bahrain,” he said.
“We believe these talented filmmakers will go on to feature in bigger film festivals across the region and make us and Bahrain proud.
“We are looking to organise the festival on an annual basis and I have no doubt that we will see the level of quality increase every year.”
nader@gdnmedia.bh
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