SAFAR Futures: Open Call for Short Films

The SAFAR Film Festival is the only festival in the UK dedicated to cinema from the Arab world. Founded in 2012, SAFAR offers a unique space for audiences to explore and celebrate Arab cinema past, present, and future.

The films will be carefully selected by SAFAR Future’s young programmers, a new mentorship programme for early-career Arab film programmers, and will be screened at the Barbican during SAFAR Film Festival (1-17 July).

Eligibility: Early career** UK based filmmakers who identify as Arab* and are aged 18-30.

*The Arab world is defined as the 22 countries who are members of The Arab League: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. We welcome applications from all people from or with heritage from these countries and cultures. While for some this may refer to nationality, for others the reference might be to identity and/or regionality. Whether you are born in or recently migrated to the UK, we recognise that the way participants self-identify is complex and personal and we welcome applications from anyone who wants to be involved.

**We define an early-career filmmaker as anyone from a complete beginner working on their first film, to someone who has made any number of short films but no more than one feature-length film.

What you get: The selected filmmakers will receive a small fee and will have the opportunity to travel to London to discuss their work at the screening.