The first edition of the Al Batinah International Film Festival kicked off on Saturday, with the participation of approximately 38 short films categorized in fiction and documentaries from 14 countries.
Films from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, Bangladesh, Mauritania and Oman are expected to participate in the festival.
While these films are divided into three sections of 20 short feature films, 11 short documentaries, and seven Omani documentaries, that revolve around the theme titled as “the Omani man’s relationship with the sea.”
During the opening ceremony, the documentary film “Al-Manjoor” by director Muhammad Al-Ajmi was screened, followed by the commencement of the festival’s program, which runs until November 15, and includes a discussion session titled as “The Future Road Map for the Arab Film Industry and Getting It Global” along with another session titled as the “Challenges of Films and Film Production”, in addition to a directing training workshop that will be conducted by Jan Al Balushi from Bahrain.
The festival is organized by the Omani Society for Cinema and Theater, which is a part of a series of festivals created to popularize the cinematic culture of the Sultanate of Oman across the GCC states and also globally.