The four-day cinematic event, which kicks off on March 4 at the Al-Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve, will also welcome other headline names such as actors Hatem Ali and Habib Ghuloom. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker will be partaking in a panel discussion on March 5, while Ghuloom and Ali will headline a panel on building a strong film industry on March 7. As part of the Dubai Art Season, the inaugural festival will run until March 7 and will serve as a platform to support and spotlight emerging as well as established regional and local filmmakers. Featuring a jam-packed program of feature length films, shorts and documentaries spanning from 1988 to 2019, the event is not one to miss. Read on for some of the regional films that will be screened during the film festival. Directed by Raed Alsemari, this film follows a young woman named Dunya from Riyadh whose perfect graduation party is set back when her domestic help, fed up with her antics, takes off just hours before her guests are anticipated to arrive. ‘To My Dear Home With Love The Aisha Al Zaabi-directed short is about a 9-year-old named Fatima who wants to return to her old house as she does not approve of her new home without her friend Sara. ‘Lion of the Desert’’ Set in Italy pre-World War II, General Rodolfo Graziani is directly assigned by Benito Mussolini to fight in the colonial war in Libya to vanquish the Arab nation, however, his troops are defeated by the national leader Omar Mukhtar and his army of Bedouins. The film was directed by Moustapha Akkad. ‘You Will Die at Twenty’ Sudanese director Amjad Abu Alala’s award-winning film tells the story of a Sudanese youth haunted by a Dervish prophecy. ‘The Letter Writer’ Directed by the UAE’s Layla Kaylif, this drama focuses on a young Arab boy, who works summers as a professional letter writer, transcribing letters into classical Arabic for local illiterates. ‘Sharp Tools’ Emirati poet and film director Nujoom Al-Ghanem paints a riveting portrait of one of the most influential figures in contemporary art in the Gulf, the late Hassan Sharif.