All films will be screened online and free of charge throughout the festival.
The first edition of the Independent Iraqi Film Festival is set to begin virtually from August 21 to 28. The free film festival will screen a total of 13 films at 7.30 pm UAE time throughout the festival via its official website.
The festival’s first short film programme, titled “Following Iraq: New Wave Cinema,” reviews life inside Iraq from the perspective of its diverse societies and the creative approaches of the country’s film industry.
The festival will open with a screening of Iraq: War, Love, God and Madness (2008, 72) by director Mohamed Al Daradji. Other films in the line-up include Sabeya (2017) by director Dhyaa Joda, Baba Boom Boom (2016) by director Usama Alshaibi, Talking Heads (2019) by director Haidar Jehad, among others.
The festival is run by a team of volunteers, including Shahnaz Dulaimy, a feature film editor who has worked on a number of award-winning productions including Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb and Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You.
The festival’s organisers launched an open call for submissions from Iraqi filmmakers in early June. Following the submission deadline on June 21, the team went through more than 80 submissions.
