MUMBAI: The third Gulf Film Festival, the annual event celebrating Gulf cinema, will be held from 8 -14 April.

Entries to the festival will be open for all films that depict life in the Arabian Gulf region.

GFF Festival Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali said that opening submissions for the Gulf Film Festival to directors across the world provides a larger window for showcasing Arab creativity. "This is an era of global collaboration and Gulf Film Festival aims to celebrate the solidarity that is expressed through the medium of films."

"The Gulf region opens a goldmine of opportunities for cinematic expression. Filmmakers from around the world are inspired by the region, and make films that are centred on life in the Arab world. The Gulf Film Festival wants to showcase all such artistic expressions that further contribute to strengthening the local film industry," Masoud added.

The Gulf Film Festival aims to boost creativity in filmmaking through the film competition for professionals and students and the script competition for Emiratis, together with a total prize money of AED 485,000.

The festival features two main competitions, the film competition and the script competition.

The film competition has two categories: official and students and is open to filmmakers and students from the GCC (including Iraq & Yemen), or filmmakers from across the globe with a film that showcases the region and its landscape.

Entries in the official competition are invited in three categories: feature films, short films, and documentaries. Students compete in short films and documentaries only.

The script competition is open to Emirati short film entries from UAE nationals exclusively. All prize money goes towards producing the three winning scripts in the UAE.