• A Hard Day’s Night: dir Richard Lester (1964)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The Beatles before they became a studio-only band and got fed up with fame, fortune and each other: Richard Lester's anything-goes direction and a decent lots-of-laughs script plus some good acting from British stalwarts of the time (like Wilfrid Brambell [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Broker: dir Hirokazu Kore-eda (2022)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    One rainy night, Moon So-young (Lee ‘IU’ Ji-eun) leaves her baby Woo-sung outside a ‘baby box’ in Busan, a safe place set up in Korean churches for new mothers to leave unwanted infants. But instead, he’s stolen by Sang-hyun (Song [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Dalma: dir Humaid Alsuwaidi (2023)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Dana moves to Dalma island when she inherits a house, renovates the property, and starts renting it out to tourists. An innocuous lunch at the only restaurant she finds sets her on a path of collision with many of the [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Zineb Sedira: A way of surviving, a way of life …

    Cultural Foundation Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Street, Abu Dhabi

    Sedira's films represent a profound archival exploration of identity, and cultural activism. Born in 1963 to Algerian parents, her work is deeply rooted in her self-narration but also sheds light on broader, interconnected global anxieties surrounding cultural emancipation and diaspora. [ ... ]

    Free
  • Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF)

    Vox Cinema, City Center Al Zahia University Road, Al Zahia, Sharjah

    SIFF is back for its eleventh edition with an expanded official selection of 98 films (last year had just over 80) selected from 1,834 submissions from 73 countries. Zimbabwe takes part for the first time; Palestine’s selection as Guest of [ ... ]

    tbc
  • The Wizard of Oz: dir Victor Fleming (1939)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A newly restored version of the classic fantasy road-trip movie. The Guardian's summary says it all: "Victor Fleming has made ... the most delightful film of its kind since Disney's Snow White. The blend of old-fashioned, classic storytelling with cutting-edge [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Didi: dir Sean Wang (2024)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    For his feature debut, winner of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, Sean Wang has crafted a poignant and humorous narrative that captures the essence of adolescence in California circa 2008. Thirteen-year-old Chris navigates the treacherous waters of teenage [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Young Frankenstein: dir Mel Brooks (1974)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The cast and director are obviously having great fun in this affectionate tribute to the classic Hollywood monster movies of the 1930s and 40s. Gene Wilder is the titular inheritor of his grandfather's Transylvanian castle, where he attempts to recreate [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Siccità | Dry: dir Paolo Virzi (2022)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    In a dystopian present, it hasn't rained in Rome for three years: the drought has reduced water reserves to a minimum and there's an epidemic of sleeping sickness carried by cockroaches. Through a city dying of thirst and prohibitions moves [ ... ]

    Free
  • Psycho: dir Alfred Hitchcock (1960)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    It doesn't get much better than the original if you want a psychological thriller dripping with suspense. Janet Leigh stars as Phoenix secretary Marion Crane, absconding with a small fortune of her employer’s money; she takes a wrong turn in [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Tunnel: dir Kim Seong-hun (2016)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    An intricate thriller woven into a story of unthinkable disaster and one man’s fight for survival in the claustrophobic darkness of a tunnel collapse. Presented by the Korean Cultural Center; in Korean with English subtitles

    Free, but pre-register
  • Animal: dir Cyril Dion (2021)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    16-year-old Bella and Vipulan are part of a generation that knows its very future is at risk – between climate change and the mass extinction of wildlife, their world could well be inhabitable 50 years from now. At the instigation [ ... ]

    Free
  • Against the Tide (dir Sarvnik Kaur, 2023)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Winner of the Sundance 2023 Vérité Filmmaking Prize, this captivating documentary of class, climate change, and overfishing centres on the lives of two indigenous fishermen. Best friends Rakesh and Ganesh both grew up in the Koli caste, both entered their [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Délicieux: dir Éric Besnard (2020)

    Jardins Germaine Tillion Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The French do films about food really rather well. This tale of a pioneering restaurant around the time of the Revolution is a sweet and savoury tribute to food, pleasure and égalité at a particularly piquant moment in French history, [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Kes (dir Ken Loach, 1969)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy is a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy who discovers his own private means of fulfilment when he adopts a fledgling kestrel and proceeds to [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Night Visitors (dir Michael Gitlin, 2023)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A movie about moths; film and video artist Michael Gitlin emphasises their surreal beauty as well as their ecological relevance. He’s interested in moths as organisms, with fascinating life histories, staggering biodiversity, and a functional importance as indicators of climate [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Xue Bao | Snow Leopard (dir Pema Tseden, China, 2023)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    This is a story about how people and animals can finally get along. A snow leopard, rare and globally endangered, breaks into the pen of a herder family and kills nine goats. The father and son argue about what to [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Agraharathil Kazhuthai | Donkey in a Brahmin Village (dir John Abraham, 1977)

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A college professor faces ridicule when he adopts a newborn donkey after its mother is killed. He leaves Madras and takes the foal to his home village, against the norms of his community. Bad things start to happen, and the [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Dancing Pina: dir Florian Heinzen-Ziob (2022)

    Sharjah Performing Arts Academy University City, Sharjah

    Two spectacular dance projects show how a young generation of dancers from all over the world are rediscovering Pina Bausch's choreography: the Semperoper Ballet Company in Dresden rehearses her dance opera Iphigenia in Tauris, and dancers from all over Africa [ ... ]

    Free
  • Gallant Indies | Les Indes galantes: dir Philippe Béziat (2021)

    Sharjah Performing Arts Academy University City, Sharjah

    On the stage of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, 30 dancers from non-traditional genres – hip-hop, krump, break, voguing – reprise and remix Jean-Philippe Rameau's baroque 1735 masterpiece, Les Indes galantes. It’s an opera offensive to modern sensibilities that reflected [ ... ]

    Free
  • Pina: dir Wim Wenders (2011)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A captivating dance documentary that celebrates the life and work of the world-renowned choreographer Pina Bausch. During the preparations for the film in 2009, Bausch died suddenly; the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as a [ ... ]

    Free
  • Call Me Dancer: dir Leslie Shampaine (2023)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Charismatic, athletic Manish is a talented young street dancer from a poor Mumbai family who struggles against his parents’ insistance that he forgets his dreams of becoming a professional dancer. He meets Yehuda, a curmudgeonly 70-year-old Israeli ballet teacher who [ ... ]

    Free
  • Rookies | Allons enfants: dir Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai (2021)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A prestigious Paris high school takes an audacious bet: to integrate students from working-class districts and to make them break the cycle of school failure through training in hip hop dance. Each student brings their own story: complex family relationships, [ ... ]

    Free
  • From Ground Zero

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A screening of 22 short films made in Gaza, accompanied by a live conversation with the Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi who launched the initiative.  The films vary in length from three to six minutes; each presents a unique perspective on [ ... ]

    Free, but currently unavailable
  • Taste the Waste: dir Valentin Thurn (2011)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Valentin Thurn's documentary shines a spotlight on the global scandal of food waste. Why do we throw away so much? On the way from the farm to the dinner table, more than half the food we grow gets thrown away. [ ... ]

    Free
  • Into The Beat | Dein Herz Tanzt: dir Stefan Westerwelle (2020)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A great coming-of-age movie – teen destined for ballet stardom discovers hip hop dance. She finds a new passion that challenges everything she knows. Torn between ballet and hip-hop, Kaya must decide which path to follow: the one set by [ ... ]

    Free
  • Call Me Dancer: dir Leslie Shampaine (2023)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Charismatic, athletic Manish is a talented young street dancer from a poor Mumbai family who struggles against his parents’ insistance that he forgets his dreams of becoming a professional dancer. He meets Yehuda, a curmudgeonly 70-year-old Israeli ballet teacher who [ ... ]

    Free
  • Move on Screen: Short Films UAE

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A programme of dance-related shorts in the Move on Screen programme. The 24 films include 10 produced by students of the Sharjah Performing Art Academy; the remainder are by local filmmakers and artists.

    Free, but pre-register
  • Gallant Indies | Les Indes galantes: dir Philippe Béziat (2021)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    On the stage of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, 30 dancers from non-traditional genres – hip-hop, krump, break, voguing – reprise and remix Jean-Philippe Rameau's baroque 1735 masterpiece, Les Indes galantes. It’s an opera offensive to modern sensibilities that reflected [ ... ]

    Free
  • Rise | En Corps: dir Cédric Klapisch (2021)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Élise (played by real-life Paris Opera Ballet principal ballerina Marion Barbeau in her first film rôle) thought she had the perfect life: an ideal boyfriend and a promising career as a ballet dancer. It all falls apart the day she [ ... ]

    Free
  • Pina: dir Wim Wenders (2011)

    Alliance Française Auditorium Oud Metha, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A captivating dance documentary that celebrates the life and work of the world-renowned choreographer Pina Bausch. During the preparations for the film in 2009, Bausch died suddenly; the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as a [ ... ]

    Free
  • Bigger Than Us: dir Flore Vasseur (2021)

    Jardins Germaine Tillion Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    When she was 12 years old, Melati Wijsen started a campaign to ban single-use plastic in Indonesia. Now 18, she decides to travel the globe seeking to connect with fellow young activists who are committed to making their world a [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Dancing Pina: dir Florian Heinzen-Ziob (2022)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Two spectacular dance projects show how a young generation of dancers from all over the world are rediscovering Pina Bausch's choreography: the Semperoper Ballet Company in Dresden rehearses her dance opera Iphigenia in Tauris, and dancers from all over Africa [ ... ]

    Free
  • More Than Honey: dir Markus Imhoof (2012)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    "If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth," said Albert Einstein, "man would have no more than four years left to live". That's because without the bees' pollinating work, agriculture could collapse and with it our ability to [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Dans la brume: dir Daniel Roby (2018)

    Jardins Germaine Tillion Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Daniel Roby's film has a Parisian couple whose daughter suffers from an incurable disease that forces her to live in a hermetically sealed glass bubble. Then a mysterious toxic fog begins to spread in the Parisian streets, killing anyone who [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Hard Shell Soft Shell | Fragile: dir Emma Benestan (2021)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A handsome oyster farmer from the Mediterranean port town of Sète vows to win back his actress girlfriend after a botched proposal involving a ring hidden in an oyster shell. Fortunately, his friends are ready to do anything to help [ ... ]

    Free
  • Animal: dir Cyril Dion (2021)

    Jardins Germaine Tillion Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    16-year-old Bella and Vipulan are part of a generation that knows its very future is at risk – between climate change and the mass extinction of wildlife, their world could well be inhabitable 50 years from now. At the instigation [ ... ]

    Free
  • Sharjah Film Platform 7

    [various Sharjah locations]

    Sharjah Arts Foundation’s annual indie/experimental film festival returns for its seventh edition, featuring around 30 UAE premieres. Most are in the Competition section, documentary and fiction films that have been nominated by an international committee of filmmakers and industry professionals. [ ... ]

    AED 15
  • Casablanca Beats: dir Nabil Ayouch (2021)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Nabil Ayouch’s grittily authentic tale of a rapper turned teacher helping his students find their creative voices is a class act. It manages to combine familiar cinematic tropes like 'strength through making music' and the inspirational teacher with a taste [ ... ]

    Free
  • Pina: dir Wim Wenders (2011)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A captivating dance documentary that celebrates the life and work of the world-renowned choreographer Pina Bausch. During the preparations for the film in 2009, Bausch died suddenly; the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as a [ ... ]

    Free
  • Hadwin’s Judgement: dir Sasha Snow (2015)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A compelling hybrid of drama and documentary, this film covers the events that led up to the infamous destruction of an extraordinary 300-year-old tree held sacred by the Indigenous Haida Nation of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Inspired by John Vaillant’s [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Zazie dans le métro: dir Louis Malle (1960)

    Jardins Germaine Tillion Hazza Bin Zayed St, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Classic surrealistic slapstick from France: Zazie is a brash and precocious ten-year-old (Catherine Demongeot) who comes to Paris for a whirlwind weekend with her rakish uncle (Philippe Noiret); he and the viewer get more than they bargained for, however. Louis [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Les Demoiselles de Rochefort: dir Jacques Demy (1996)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Delphine is a dance teacher ; her sister Solange composes and teaches the piano. Maxence, a poet and a painter, is doing his military service; Simon owns a music shop. They are all looking for love, without being aware that [ ... ]

    Free
  • Into The Beat | Dein Herz Tanzt: dir Stefan Westerwelle (2020)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A great coming-of-age movie – teen destined for ballet stardom discovers hip hop dance. She finds a new passion that challenges everything she knows. Torn between ballet and hip-hop, Kaya must decide which path to follow: the one set by [ ... ]

    Free
  • Hard Shell Soft Shell | Fragile: dir Emma Benestan (2021)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A handsome oyster farmer from the Mediterranean port town of Sète vows to win back his actress girlfriend after a botched proposal involving a ring hidden in an oyster shell. Fortunately, his friends are ready to do anything to help [ ... ]

    Free
  • Dans la brume | Just a Breath Away: dir Daniel Roby (2018)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Daniel Roby's film has a Parisian couple whose daughter suffers from an incurable disease that forces her to live in a hermetically sealed glass bubble. Then a mysterious toxic fog begins to spread in the Parisian streets, killing anyone who [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Into The Beat | Dein Herz Tanzt: dir Stefan Westerwelle (2020)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A great coming-of-age movie – teen destined for ballet stardom discovers hip hop dance. She finds a new passion that challenges everything she knows. Torn between ballet and hip-hop, Kaya must decide which path to follow: the one set by [ ... ]

    Free
  • Casablanca Beats: dir Nabil Ayouch (2021)

    Cinema Akil in 25hours Hotel Trade Center St, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Nabil Ayouch’s grittily authentic tale of a rapper turned teacher helping his students find their creative voices is a class act. It manages to combine familiar cinematic tropes like 'strength through making music' and the inspirational teacher with a taste [ ... ]

    Free
  • Bouchra Khalili: The Tempest Society

    Mirage City Cinema Al Mureijah Art Spaces, Sharjah

    Last chance to see Bouchra Khalili’s 2017 video work, part of a long series devoted to the legacy of Al Assifa ('The Tempest' in Arabic) – a theatre group comprising North African immigrant workers and French students that was active [ ... ]

    Free
  • Day 1 | Forest Cinema

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Dharamshala International Film Festival has a peripatetic and constantly changing programme called DIFF On the Road, part of the festival’s mandate to build networks of cinematic solidarity and to extend the space for discourse around independent cinema. In keeping with [ ... ]

    Free