Dammam – Saudi films bagged four awards at the Gulf Film Festival 2016 held at Abu Dhabi in different categories including short films, short and long documentaries, and animation movies.

The GCC’s General Secretary organized the first festival of Gulf filmmakers from 16 to 20 October aiming at encouraging people from this field in the Gulf region to compete and participate to win awards and show their capacities in film-making.

In its first edition, the festival has honored Ahmed Al-Mulla, director of the Culture and Arts Association in Dammam for his successful direction of the Saudi Arabian Film Festival and his remarkable cultural role he fulfills through the association.

The Committee of Saudi Film Festival nominated five movies to participate in the GCC festival including Basta” (street stall), a short feature film by Hind Al-Fahied (3rd place); “Yellow,” a short documentary by Mohammed Salman (2nd place) in the short documentary category; “Maze,” a long feature documentary by Faisal Al-Otaibi (3rd place); and “Youth popcorn,” an animation by Raaid Al-Sheikh (2nd place), which have won the four awards.

It is worth noting that the Saudi Film Festival showed 15 movies in a number of the Kingdom’s region and participated in many events.

The Saudi Arabian movies are expected to partake in Nouakchott Short Film Festival set to be held from 23 to 27 October.