The Sultanate of Oman will host the fourth International Arab Film Festival, "Cinemana", for the second consecutive time at two venues, Muscat and Musandam, from 3 to 8 February, with a rich programme of 121 films including 43 short films. The participating MENA countries are: Oman, Morocco, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Palestine, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan as well as Sudan and Iran. An official opening ceremony will be held under the auspices of HE Salim bin Mohammed al Mahrouqi, Minister of Heritage and Tourism, on 4 February at the Scout Band in Ghala Heights.
The Arab films in the feature film section are:
- "Al Kamin" by Ashraf al Abadi (Jordan);
- "Al Hakim" by Basil al Khatib (Syria);
- "Oscar" by Mohammed al Hamli (Kuwait);
- "Halim al Ra'ad" by Bin Abdullah Mohammed (Algeria);
- "A Cross in the Desert" by Hadzi-Aleksandar Djurovic (Serbia, Jordan and Romania);
- "The Last Messengers" by Saad al Assami (Iraq);
- "Wesh al Qafs" by Dina Abdel Salam (Egypt);
- "Hayat a Woman" by Samir Aref (Saudi Arabia);
- "218 Behind the Wall of Silence" by Nahla al Fahd (United Arab Emirates).
The jury of the fourth edition of the Festival includes several Arab directors, artists and film critics. The feature film jury is composed of Akef Najm who is the committee chairman (Jordan), Muhammad Mohsen Al-Zarai (Tunisia), Mervat Omar (Egypt), Abdul Karim Jawad (Sultanate of Oman) and Wajuri Nareel (India).
Photo: copyright Oman News.