Student films win top honors at Emirates Film Competition

Films produced by AUS students won top honors at the 2005 Emirates Film Competition. The awards were presented at a ceremony held on March 7 at the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi.

Fadel Al Muhairi, an AUS multimedia design major, received the “Best Screenplay” award for his film Al Ghaith. What makes his success truly noteworthy is that Mr. Al Muhairi won this award in the professional section of the competition and not in the student category. He also received a cash award of AED 10,000 for his fantastic achievement.

Multimedia design major Theyab Al Tamimi walked away with the “Best Student Fiction Film” award – along with the AED 7,000 cash prize – for his film News.

Two certificates of recognition were also awarded by the jury to Wijidan Ramadan for her film Silence, and to Salem Al Qassimi for his film Static Identity. Both students are multimedia design majors.

The competition jury also presented AUS with an award in recognition of its efforts and participation. Mr. John Swanstrom, Assistant Professor of Multimedia Design at AUS, accepted the award on behalf of the university. AUS was the only university at the competition to be thus recognized.

Held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture and Information, the week-long competition, attracted more than 130 UAE filmmakers this year. It is the irst competition of its kind ever conducted in the Emirates to encourage serious film making in the country.