The Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF) has signed a new federal partnership with the UAE’s National Media Authority, in a push to build a stronger and more sustainable pipeline for emerging filmmakers.
Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi and Mohammed Saeed Al Shehhi (Credits: SIFF)
The memorandum of understanding was signed on Monday, the opening day of SIFF’s 13th edition, by the National Media Authority and FANN – Media Discovery Platform, the Sharjah organisation that runs the festival. FANN takes its name from the Arabic word for art, and the agreement makes the authority an official supporting partner of the festival.
The deal covers cooperation in areas ranging from film screening procedures to training and technical support, giving the festival a federal partner for the practical work that sits behind the screenings themselves.
Sharjah Film Festival Partners With UAE National Media Authority
The agreement was signed by Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi, director of FANN and SIFF, and Mohammed Saeed Al Shehhi, secretary-general of the National Media Authority. Their presence at the signing underlined the partnership’s status as a formal step up for the festival, rather than a one-off gesture.
For SIFF, which is dedicated to cinema for children and young people, the partnership matters because emerging filmmakers need more than a festival slot. Screening procedures, training and technical support are the unglamorous infrastructure that determines whether young talent can actually get films made, shown and seen, and whether a festival can keep producing new voices year after year.
The National Media Authority is a recently established federal body, and its backing gives SIFF a broader institutional base as it enters its 13th edition. The festival’s focus on young audiences also sets it apart: it is not only showcasing films for children and youth, but actively working to bring the next generation of filmmakers into the industry.
What the SIFF Partnership Means for Emerging Filmmakers
The stated goal of the agreement is a more substantial and sustainable pipeline for emerging filmmakers, and the areas it covers point to how that pipeline is meant to work in practice. Training helps new filmmakers build skills, technical support helps them finish work to a professional standard, and clear screening procedures help that work reach audiences.
Taken together, the partnership positions Sharjah as a growing hub for youth cinema in the region, with a festival that pairs its annual programme with longer-term support for the filmmakers behind it. As SIFF’s 13th edition gets under way, the new federal partnership will be one of the key stories to watch, both for what it delivers this year and for how it shapes the festival’s future editions.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
