Business & Money | Sunday 23 October, 2016 5:21 am |

Saudi films bagged four awards at the Gulf Film Festival 2016 at Abu Dhabi in different categories.
The awards were announced at the conclusion of the festival on Friday night.
In the Gulf Film Festival, where only five films from a member country can participate, Saudi filmmakers participated with short films, documentaries and other categories. Four out of the five films received awards.
The films that bagged awards were: “Basta” (street stall), a short feature film by Hind Al-Fahied (3rd place); “Yellow,” a short documentary by Mohammed Salman (2nd place) in the short documentary category; “Maze,” a long feature documentary by Faisal Al-Otaibi (3rd place); and “Youth popcorn,” an animation by Raaid Al-Sheikh (2nd place).
The Saudi team of filmmakers was led by Ahmed Al-Mulla, director of the Culture and Arts Association in Dammam, who was honored at the festival for his outstanding role as a leader.
The festival opened on Oct. 15 in Abu Dhabi, where Arab film and TV stars participated with films from all Gulf countries.
Award winner Faisal Al-Otaibi told Arab News that this was the festival’s third edition and the first time it was hosted by the UAE. The first Gulf Film Festival was organized in Doha in 2012, and the second in Kuwait. The next edition of the festival will be held in Saudi Arabia.
“The festival was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development of the UAE. Every two years the festival is organized with the mutual cooperation of Gulf countries’ ministries of information and culture, and the festival of 2018 will be held in Dammam, because Dammam has experience in organizing film festivals,” he said.
He explained that it aims to showcase a selection of the best films made in the six-member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council— the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
During this year's festival, there were free screening of 27 short and feature-length films, a mix of fiction and documentaries, at Novo Cinemas in Abu Dhabi Mall, where the festival was opened with the UAE film “The Road” by Abdullah Al-Junaibis.
Al-Otaibi said that the Saudi films which won awards were about the culture and traditions of the Kingdom. The film “Yellow” is about the yellow taxis which the Kingdom had in the past and which has now been replaced with white. “Basta” (street stall) is about women who are selling things on the streets and “Maze” is a feature film about the problems faced by the fisherman of Jazan.
Al-Otabi said “Maze” is all about Jazan fishermen and their special way of fishing, lifestyle and the problems they are facing because of the changes and developments that are taking place now.