The Middle East Film and Comic Con has joined forces with the Dubai Film Festival and Attitude Enterprise to produce a new Arab sci-fi film, to be based on the winning script of the companies’ screenplay competition. For comic book-enthusiasts, Comic-Con needs no introduction; for the rest of us, however, it is the biggest comic book convention in the world. The convention was first established in 1970 in San Diego, and has become an annual cultural staple since.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the Middle East Film and Comic-Con stage a Middle East version of the convention in Dubai every April. On their website, the Middle East Comic-Con is described as follows: “The Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC) is the only consumer event for fans of cult entertainment and popular culture in the Middle East. It was launched as consistent outlet for the many thousands of fans in the region and to support the media, licensing and entertainment industry, as well as encouraging a new generation of artists, writers, directors and entrepreneurs within the entertainment and artistic field.”
The Dubai International Film Festival is an annual event that brings together filmmakers and celebrities from all over the Middle East. Managing Director of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) Shivani Pandya said that one of the festival’s goal is to “nurture creativity and innovation”, and so the competition fits in with the festival’s plans perfectly.
Aspiring writers should take their inspiration from the Middle East, so the concepts of the film will revolve around a locally-relevant science-fiction theme.
The winning screenplay will be refined by a Hollywood writer and the film will be produced by Attitude Enterprise, a UAE media production company, with support of people from the film industry.
MEFCC describes what the submissions should be like: “The competition requires entrants to submit a maximum four-page treatment including a brief synopsis of the key plot points, settings, characters and their motivations along with any other elements that they feel make the idea special and worthy of production. A panel of judges from MEFCC, DIFF and Attitude management will choose the winning concept that will be then transferred to the screen.”
The competition has already opened, and the deadline for submission of treatments is 31 August 2013. The winning script will be announced in September 2013.
