By IANS,
Dubai : A new film market will be launched during the course of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) in December to promote Arab, Asian and African filmmakers.
The Dubai Film Market will facilitate the exchange of rights, services or product ownership, a DIFF statement here said.
It will also empower buyers and sellers with industry knowledge and simplify the transaction of content trading.
The new initiative is part of DIFF’s efforts to raise the visibility of world cinema with an emphasis on Arab, Asian and African filmmakers and stimulating regional and international film production and trade.
“The Dubai Film Market will revolutionise the way content acquisition takes place,” Ziad Yaghi, director of the Dubai Film Market, said in the statement.
The main highlight of the Dubai Film Market, according to DIFF, is the introduction of a revolutionary process to acquire audio-visual content through Cinetech, a digitized film library that will include feature films, documentaries, short films and TV content.
“Cinetech content will be thoroughly filtered and served to film market participants through the most innovative technology. It will also provide people involved in the TV, home video and film industries with a networking platform to discover future trends and trade content on a global level,” he added.
Cinetech will help participants browse and screen through a multitude of film titles. The initial archive will consist of over 200 titles, with the aspiration to grow year on year.
Further assisting buyers and other industry professionals in their browsing experience, Cinetech will categorise all available content under different labels.
Cinetech will also assist industry professionals in the selection process by giving them the opportunity to contact or interact with sales agents and rights holders.
Participation in the Dubai Film Market is open to content providers from across the world and they can trade in a diversified range of genres such as feature films, documentaries, short films and television content.
Registration is free and open to all industry professionals including buyers, sales agents, programmers, filmmakers and producers.
Stating that Dubai has now got good infrastructure for filmmaking and production, DIFF chairman Abdulhamid Juma said: “The Dubai Film Market is a natural progression as it is designed to gradually establish Dubai as the regional centre for discovery and trade of Content that will benefit the rapidly evolving film, media and technology industry at large.”
Founded in 2004, DIFF is a not-for-profit event and screens between 100 and 150 feature films, documentaries, and short films organized into different programme sections at various theatrical venues in this west Asian metropolis.
This year, the event will be held Dec 11-18.