Sharjah Art Foundation’s festival of independent cinema and experimental film returns for its seventh edition, promising a dynamic showcase from Nov. 15 to 24. For the seventh consecutive year, Sharjah Film Platform 7 (SFP7) is bringing bold, genre-defying films from around the world to Sharjah cinephiles.
This year’s screenings are set to get underway at Mirage City Cinema, an open-air theater in Sharjah’s historical quarter, and VOX Cinemas at City Centre Al Zahia. SFP7’s Competition section will present UAE premieres of standout documentary and fiction films selected by an esteemed international jury of filmmakers and industry experts. Films from Myanmar, Bhutan, Rwanda, Nigeria, Colombia, Bahrain, and Palestine will compete for the coveted Sharjah Film Platform Awards, with Q&A sessions following select screenings to engage audiences with the directors’ insights.
Highlights from the Competition include Kamal Aljafari’s A Fidai Film (2024), an evocative documentary reclaiming lost Palestinian history through archival footage; Hamida Issa’s Places of the Soul (2023), a breathtaking comparison of Antarctica’s frozen expanse and Qatar’s deserts; Cu Li Never Cries (2024) by Pham Ngoc Lan, a poetic film intertwining personal and political narratives in contemporary Vietnam; and Aliyar Rasti’s The Great Yawn of History (2024), which follows a religious man’s pursuit of hidden treasure in Iran.
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SFP7 also features two works backed by Sharjah Art Foundation: From Ground Zero (2024), a compelling anthology of 22 shorts by Gaza-based filmmakers, and Upshot (2024) by Maha Haj, which explores the solitude and reflections of a couple burdened by a painful past.
The Director in Focus segment celebrates Syrian auteur Mohamad Malas, lauded for his emotionally charged films capturing Syria’s modern history. Screenings of The Dream (1987), The Night (1992), and the world premiere of Oh Father, I Am Youssef (2024) honor Malas’ legacy, with a masterclass on storytelling in cinema offering audiences a deeper dive into his craft.
Alongside film screenings, SFP7 will play host to a robust program of talks and workshops, exploring themes like African and Asian modernity, cinema as resilience and resistance in Palestine, and pioneering trends in documentary filmmaking.
This year also marks an evolution of the Sharjah Film Platform Feature Fund. Formerly the Pitching Forum, the fund now awards 500,000 AED to a UAE-based filmmaker to support the production of a narrative feature in English or Arabic, underscoring Sharjah’s commitment to nurturing regional talent.
Sharjah Film Platform 7 is presented with the generous support of the UAE Ministry of Culture, Sharjah Media City Free Zone (Shams), VOX Cinemas, and the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, making this dynamic edition a testament to Sharjah’s place on the global film stage.
