From inside the historic Fort of Sohar, in the Sultanate of Oman, the first session of the Al Batinah International Film Festival kicked off yesterday, with the participation of 38 short films, including fiction and documentaries, from 14 countries .
Films from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, Bangladesh, Mauritania and the Sultanate of Oman will participate in the festival.
The films are divided into three sections, which are 20 narrative shorts, 11 documentary shorts and seven Omani documentaries revolving around the “relationship of Omani man with the sea”.
The narrative short film jury is chaired by actress Fakhriya Khamis, with the participation of Emirati artist Hussein Amiri and Moroccan actress Jehan Kamal.
At the opening, the festival screened the documentary film “Al-Manjur” by director Mohamed Al-Ajmi, whose title derives from a wooden machine that was used in the past to draw water from the ground before the advent of pumps.
A number of Omani artists and filmmakers were honored at the ceremony, including Saleh Zaal, Ibrahim Al Zadjali, Ibrahim Al Balushi, Maryam Al Maamaria, Ahmed Al Owaini and Naima Al Balushi.
The festival programme, which will run until November 15, includes a discussion session entitled “The Future Roadmap for the Arab Film Industry and its Access to the World” and another session entitled “Challenges of Film and Film Production”, as well as at a directing training seminar presented by Jan Al Balushi of Bahrain.
The festival, organized by the Omani Society for Cinema and Theater, is one of a series of festivals developed by the society to spread film culture in the various governorates of the Sultanate of Oman and promote it in cinema and tourism.
