Apart from the screening of various films, the film festival will bring together filmmakers, artists and the industry professionals to explore the approaches to filmmaking.
Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual film festival, Sharjah Film Platform (SFP), will return for its second edition from December 14 to 21. This edition features over 50 short and feature films in the narrative, documentary and experimental categories.
The films have been made by filmmakers from across the region and around the world who responded to an international open call. Included in the programme are the three new productions supported by SFP’s Short Film Production Grant. They are Grant winner Julian Alexander’s film Layla, At Last (2019), Emerson Reyes’ film, Children of the Lake (2019), and Faisal Attrache’s From the Mountain (2019). All three films will premiere on the opening night of the festival.
All SFP films will be screened at the foundation’s open-air Mirage City Cinema in Al Mureijah Art Spaces or at Al Hamra Cinema, which is a Sharjah institution which dates to the 1970s.
This edition of SFP also includes several talks, panel discussions and workshops. The public programme of talks will bring together filmmakers, artists, industry professionals and audiences to explore different approaches to filmmaking and current issues in the film industry. Aspiring filmmakers and film enthusiasts can take part in a range of workshops that cover different aspects of filmmaking, including screenwriting and production.
At the end of the festival, an international jury will announce the winners of the best narrative, documentary and experimental film awards. The winning filmmakers will receive a monetary prize to support the production of future projects.
The film festival will also include the inaugural Pitching Forum, which will serve as a platform for emerging filmmakers to present their films to industry professionals, describe new projects, find potential collaborators for future projects and receive valuable feedback.
