ZUMEFF - Zayed University Middle East Film Festival
The Zayed University Middle East Film Festival (ZUMEFF) is the longest running annual film festival in the United Arab Emirates and makes a vital contribution to the regional film industry. ZUMEFF’s objective is to honor young filmmakers’ talent, creativity, and expertise by showcasing the best student documentary, fiction and animation films.
The 13th Annual Zayed University Middle East Film Festival will take place from 28 – 29 November 2023. Submissions will be accepted from Middle Eastern students.
AWARDS
Best Documentary
Best Fiction
Best Animation
twofour54 Creative Lab Emerging Filmmaker Award
*This award is given to a UAE National
NEW AWARD FOR 2023
Sustainability
* In line with the UAE’s national strategy and 2023 being the Year of Sustainability, ZUMEFF will present the Sustainability Award. This award is given to a film submission that best honors the values of sustainability and responsibility to protect the future (i.e., environmental sustainability, water, energy, climate change, eco-tourism, resources management).
Submissions open from 27 March until 15 May 2023
RULES and TERMS
Categories include: documentary, fiction and animation.
- Length of films: 15 minutes maximum.
- Format of Films: .MP4, .MOV. (Resolution = 1920×1080 to 3840×2160).
- Non-English language film submissions must include English subtitles/voiceovers.
- Open to all university/college students enrolled during Summer 2022 – Spring 2023 (July 2022 – July 2023).
- Entries into the film festival grant us permission to show your film during the festival and at any post festival screenings.
- The person submitting the entry acknowledges that he or she has obtained consent and from any and all owners, creators, writers, actors, producers and/or other authorized representatives of the film whose consent is required to submit the content to the festival.
- Multiple film submissions are permitted but each film can be submitted to only one category.
TO SUBMIT A FILM, you need to:
- Comply with the preselection conditions (must exclude inappropriate language and disturbing graphic imagery).
- Provide a password-protected secure online link to the film with a synopsis in English of your film.
ENTRY VERIFICATION
Film submissions will only be accepted upon verification that you are or were a full-time undergraduate or graduate student in a college/university during the academic year Summer 2022 – Spring 2023 (July 2022 – July 2023). Certification must be uploaded in the form of either:
- an official signed/stamped letter from the registrar’s office, or by the head of your university, college/school.
- a valid student university ID card (front and back of the card) showing the dates of validity.
Any entries submitted without this verification of student status will not be accepted into the film festival.
In order to offer a more streamlined submission process, we continue partnering with FilmFreeway this year to handle all film submissions.
The College of Communication and Media Sciences is pleased to share with you the results of ZUMEFF 2022. The festival was again a resounding success. We received more than 1,300 films from 99 countries. After much deliberation here are all the final winning entries.
First Place
Fiction
MEMORIAS DE UNA BAILARINA
Name: Iván Melguizo Martín
University: Digital Television Film School - Septima Ars, Spain
Documentary
FROM BURMA TO BANGLADESH
Name: Mrittika Kamal
University: University of Liberal Arts in Bangladesh
Animation
WONDERFULLY MADE
Name: Joseph Hoh
University: Swinburn University of Technology, Australia
Mobile
SAND WAS ONCE A MAN
Filmmaker: Vimal Jose
University: Government Dental College in Trivandrum, India
twofour54 Creative Lab Emerging Filmmaker
THE LABYRINTH
Name: Latifa Alhassan
University: Zayed University – College of Arts and Creative Enterprises
Honorable Mention
Fiction
DOVE
Filmmaker: Igor Gladkov
University: Academy of Cinematographic and Theatrical Art N.S. Mikhalkov, Russia
Documentary
AFGHAN CINEMA EXISTS
Filmaker: Ali Orokzai
University: George Mason University, USA
Animation
DRESS REHEARSAL
Filmmaker: Marie Fayt
University: ècole émile cohl, France
twofour54 Creative Lab Emerging Filmmaker
RELAXING FOOTAGES TO HELP YOU SLEEP
Filmmaker: Dana Almheiri
University: Zayed University – College of Arts and Creative Enterprises
Middle East Filmmaker Awards
Fiction
Filmmaker: Sami Saif Sirelkhatim
University: ISCA – Institut Spécialisé du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel, Morocco
Documentary
THE LAST TONES
Filmmaker: Doaa Salah Farid
University: Kamal Adham Centre at the American University in Cairo, Egypt
Animation
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
Filmmaker: Raghad Odeh
University: University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
You can still watch these films and other content from ZUMEFF 2022 at: https://zumeff2020.com/
The Zayed University Middle East Film Festival (ZUMEFF) is an international student film festival. Now in its 12th year, it showcases the best films from universities across the globe. In 2021, we took the festival worldwide and received a record number of entries, in total over 2,000 films were submitted from 106 different countries all over the world
ZUMEFF was established in 2010 as a graduation project by Al Yazyah Nasser Ahmad Thani Bin Obood and Reem Fakher Husain Al Zarkan with the aim to showcase student films and encourage young filmmakers in the region.
Learn more about this year's festival on the official ZUMEFF website: www.zumeff2020.com
Stay tuned to our socials in the coming weeks as we have more exciting ZUMEFF 2022 announcements to come .
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