MUMBAI: The spotlight of this year‘s Gulf Film Festival - the annual event celebrating Gulf cinema held under the patronage of Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum - will be on French filmmaker Francois Vogel. An eclectic selection of his 16 short films is due to be screened.

Globally renowned for his arresting visuals that blend the best of traditional filmmaking with New Age digital media, Vogel is as much an illustrious digital photographer as a filmmaker who experiments with cubist squares, three dimensional approaches and free-moving elements.

GFF Festival Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali says that the selection of Vogel‘s shorts for the ‘In Focus‘ segment of the festival is reflective of the evolution in filmmaking techniques today. "With technology breaking all barriers in film-making, young filmmakers show a growing interest in digital filmmaking techniques."

"Vogel is known for his creative liberties in manipulating the space between the subject and the camera, even as he explores serious subject matter such as the absurdity of wars. His movies will serve as a referral point in new age film-making, and inspire regional filmmakers to look beyond the accepted frontiers," he added.

Vogel began his career in visual arts with video artist Dominik Barbier‘s gallery installations and gained international acclaim with his ‘You‘ campaign for HP. He conceputalised the ‘Picture Book‘ campaign that won AdWeek‘s Campaign of the Year.

Some of films of Vogel to be screened from 8 to 14 April are After the Rain; Cuisine; Rebus; Les Crabes; Tournis; Trois petits chats; Readymade, Live @ the End; Rue Francis; Faux plafond; Cueillette; La Poule Gerard; Le Bruit de la vrillette; Riante contree; La Sieste sous les cocotiers; Un cirque vraiment extraordinaire and Stretching.