SHARJAH FILM PLATFORM 9

Sharjah Film Platform has become one of the UAE’s key events for independent and experimental cinema, creating space for films and filmmakers that often sit outside mainstream theatrical distribution. This ninth edition brings together emerging voices and established directors from the UAE, Palestine, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Mexico, India, Haiti and beyond, while its competition awards fiction and documentary works across feature and short formats.

A major highlight is the focus on Oscar-nominated Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, whose cinema explores exile, memory, migration and contemporary African life. Three films from different stages of his career, Bamako (2006), Timbuktu (2014) and Black Tea (2024), are screened during the festival, with Sissako also leading a masterclass on 7 November at Gallery 4, Al Mureijah Square. The programme also includes First Takes, supporting emerging UAE filmmakers, and premieres of new shorts produced through Sharjah Art Foundation’s production grant.

Useful programme highlights

• Opening film: Letters by Josef Khallouf
• 26 films in total
• Director in Focus: Abderrahmane Sissako
• Bamako, Timbuktu and Black Tea
• Sissako Masterclass: 7 November, 6:30–7:30 PM
• Competition: Fiction + Documentary, feature + short
• First Takes programme for emerging UAE filmmakers
• Closing film: An Incomplete Drowning by Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind