The Dubai International Film Festival is headed back to the calendar, with a revived edition scheduled to begin on Dec. 8, 2027.
The return of the festival was announced Thursday by Mona Ghanem Al Marri, vice chairperson and managing director of the Dubai Media Council, during the Arab Media Summit. The news was reported by local media and confirmed by Dubai sources.
The relaunch comes a decade after the festival’s last edition and after the event was shuttered in 2018. Al Marri said in a speech that the festival’s new format will concentrate on Arab cinema while also aiming to strengthen Dubai’s position as a film and TV production hub.
In framing the announcement, Al Marri described the revival as a new chapter for an event whose journey began in 2004 and which grew into what she characterized as the leading film event in the Middle East.
The festival’s shutdown in 2018 was reported at the time as being tied to the diversion of government funds to the Dubai expo. Its planned 2027 comeback therefore marks a significant re-entry for a regional cinema event that had once occupied a prominent place on the Middle East festival circuit.
A new version, with key details still pending
While the Dec. 8, 2027 start date has been set, major elements of the revived festival remain undisclosed. The management structure for the new Dubai festival has not yet been announced, and many other details about the upcoming incarnation are still to come.
One figure from the festival’s previous era will not be part of the relaunch. Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who managed the Dubai Film Festival and was later instrumental in launching Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival as its managing director, is not involved in the upcoming version of the Dubai event. She recently stepped down from her Red Sea role.
The emphasis on Arab cinema signals a defined direction for the festival’s return, though the full programming approach, leadership team and operational plans have yet to be made public.
Looking back at DIFF’s final edition
The Dubai International Film Festival’s final edition took place in December 2017. That edition featured 18 Arab features, with more than one-third of them world premieres.
The 2017 festival also included regional premieres of major international titles. Among them was “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which served as the festival’s closing film.
DIFF’s final edition further underscored the event’s global industry connections, hosting delegations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Golden Globes. The festival team had established close ties with both organizations.
What happens next?
For now, the clearest confirmed information is the date: the revived Dubai International Film Festival is set to kick off on Dec. 8, 2027. Additional announcements are still expected around the festival’s management, format details and broader plans for its new edition.