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Abu Dhabi film fund to aid four film projects

Abu Dhabi - 45 filmmakers from the Arab world have submitted their film projects for the first CFC-Sanad funding.

The Abu Dhabi film fund 'Sanad' has announced an aid for four films under production in partnership with the Cairo Film Connection (CFC).
Running parallel to the Cairo International Film Festival, CFC serves as a networking co-production forum that connects Arab filmmakers with industry professionals to discuss opportunities for collaboration and provides them with additional exposure and funding opportunities.
The best film project will be awarded $10,000.
"Which film project will receive the $10,000 funding will be decided by an independent jury," said Intishal Al Timimi, head of Sanad.
Along with the main award, Sanad will also give prizes to three other film projects.
The forum concludes on Friday with a film competition judged by a team of industry experts. Forty-five filmmakers from the Arab world have submitted their film projects for the first CFC-Sanad funding, but only 12 were selected for the final competition.
"Most important for us is that among the 12 finalists, five have received Sanad funding previously, at earlier stages of their filmmaking, which shows how good our selection criteria is and makes us proud to be the first to discover and recognise their talent," Al Timimi told Khaleej Times.
The five films in development already recognised by Sanad and competing for its funding again at CFC are "The Bridge" by Hala Lotfy, "The Day I Ate the Fish" by Aida Elkashef, "A Dog's Tail" by Rami Yasin and "Nothing Doing in Baghdad" by Mysoon Paachachi, along "Poisonous Roses" by Fawzi Saleh, which is in post production stage.
Most of these films have budgets from $200,000 to over $1million.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com