Women are taking the lead at this year’s Emirates Film Competition (EFC), the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) segment featuring films by directors from the UAE and the Gulf.

Of the 53 films selected this year, 37 are directed by women. They include Sarah Al Agroobi’s Super Lochal and a film by Bahraini director Hala Matar featuring Jackass star Johnny Knoxville called Desire in the short narrative competition category. Other categories include short documentary competition, student documentary competition and student short narrative competition.

The line-up also includes films by Ali Mostafa called Rise, a music film, and Koshk by Abdullah Al Ka’abi. There’s also Marwan The Boxer by Hassan Kiyani, Now Showing by Kuwaiti director Abdullah Al Daihani, Bahraini director Mahmoud Al Shaikh’s Rainbow and Shaikha Al Naimi from Qatar with her flm 623.

“At ADFF, one of our main objectives is to allow students to follow their passion for filmmaking and we also aim to connect aspiring directors with film experts from all over the world,” said Saleh Karama, the director of the Emirates Film Competition. “Exposure at film festivals like ADFF will help them gain more fundamentals required for contributing to the region’s film industry.”

The EFC was founded in 2001 to host annual workshops and facilitate conversations between directors and students, before it was merged with the ADFF in 2007.

The ADFF runs from October 23 to November 1. For detailed listings, go to adff.ae