The Youth and Short Film Festival defies war and the Coronavirus

The Youth Cinema and Short Films Festival will kick off today (June 25) at Dar Al-Assad for Culture and Arts, and 23 short films which were produced by a grant given by the Youth Cinema Support Project, will be shown.

This festival, which started its first session in June 2014 with a large number of films – at the time nearly fifty films, has become through its successive sessions one of the most important cultural festivals that the Syrian public waits for, as it gives an innovative space for young people to present their visions and cinematic attempts.

The Syrian National Film Organization runs the festival which aims at providing appropriate opportunities for promising cinematic talents for training and learning.

Over the past years, the festival honored a large number of Syrian and Arab actresses, actors, directors, writers, musicians, plastic artists and cinematographers. 

Despite the conditions caused by the quarantine to tackle the Coronavirus, filming only stopped for two months. The continuation of the festival itself is an achievement, as the seventh session of the festival.

During the festival, preventive measures are applied against the Corona virus, in an effort by the Syrian National Film Organization and Dar Al-Assad to preserve the safety of lovers of the seventh art and the festival’s participants.

The festival’s jury will be chaired by Basil Al-Khatib, the director, and other members Maestro Adnan Fathallah and actress Kinda Hanna, while films will be shown in two periods at 1pm and 3pm for four days.

On the sidelines of the festival, short films will be presented at the Al-Kendi Cinema in Damascus, including seven professional films from the latest production of the National Film Organization.

“The festival develops year after year and has reached an advanced stage and has a respectable place among the Arab film festivals,” Murad Shaheen, Director General of Syrian National Film Organization said.

O.al-Mohammad