The fourth Al Ain Film Festival took place this week at a time when there seems to be an influx of movie industry events in the Middle East.

There were festivals in El Gouna, Cairo, Ajyal (an outstanding young person’s festival in Doha) and then in December, Saudi Arabia, where cinema had been banned for almost four decades, jumped into the game with the inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival. (For the sake of transparency, I am the Director of International Film Programming there).

And these were just the festivals that managed to go ahead during the pandemic. There has never been a healthier time to get a film into a festival in the Middle East and North Africa region.

But have we not been here before? In the early 2000s, the Middle East was a hotbed of new festivals. The Dubai International Film Festival started in 2003. The Abu Dhabi Film Festival got off the ground four years later. Then in 2009, Doha got in on the act, partnering with Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival. None of these festivals exists today.

Instead of being the dawn of a new era, the festivals were flashes in the pan. Despite being incredible events attracting star names, they proved unsustainable. There seemed to be many reasons for this, including a lack of attendance from local audiences, the non-emergence of an Emirati or Qatari filmmaker on the global scene, films playing at the festivals uncensored then being cut before release and a changing socio-political environment in the region following the 2011 protests.

Some began to question whether the film festivals were worth having. This ensured that the mid-2010s were a painful time for Arab cinema fanatics, as one festival after another closed.

But as is so often the case, absence makes the heart grow fonder. The festivals left a legacy and a desire for cinema in the region. The festivals also gave a platform for the local population to get into the film business. The influx of films such as “Fast and Furious” and “Mission Impossible” created opportunities for people in the region to become technicians in the film industry.

Many were determined not to lose those gains and this determination led to a new type of festival, more focussed on the filmmakers and less on the glam red carpets. The Doha Film Institute created the successful Qumra events for key industry players to meet with and hopefully help emerging artists.

With a similar philosophy, the Al Ain Film Festival came into being. The festival was founded upon a desire to “support the sustainability of the UAE film industry’s growth.” According to the organisers, the festival “provides opportunities for professional filmmakers, students and creative youth to present their films through a unique platform.”

The event in the UAE opened with the Algerian film “Heliopolis.” The feature film and short film competitions were comprised of titles from the GCC and formed the centrepieces of the four-day event.

International titles in the line-up included the Egyptian film “Feathers,” directed by Omar El Zohairy, which won the coveted Critics’ Week Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and Teemu Nikku’s rather delightfully titled “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” which won the top prize at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival.

The future for film festivals now looks rosy. There are many differences today from when the wave of events happened in the mid-2000s. Those festivals began just as there was a renewed interest in filmmaking in the region. However, the infrastructure to support new filmmakers was not there.

Also, Arab cinema as we know it today was in its infancy. Filmmakers such as Nadine Labaki, Annemarie Jacir, Hany Abu Assad and A B Shawky were learning their craft. These days, their projects regularly play and win prizes at the world’s biggest festivals. Filmmaking has become a viable occupation and Arab films are being recognised on the biggest stages. This success breeds confidence in others. Many more Arab movies are made today than before and of a quality rarely seen in cinema history.

There was always a problem with censorship that existed in the region. Film distributors would not buy great films for cinema release in the region because they believed many would not go to the cinemas to watch the cut versions but rather wait for the home release. The big sales agents stopped coming to the festivals because no one was buying their product. And as a result, the film festivals lost their essential role of being a launchpad for films for distribution.

Now that looks like it will change. The UAE recently announced that it would not censor films but release films in their international cut, with a new 21 rating. Other countries in the region are likely to do the same.

The pandemic has also highlighted the human need for communal activity and what better than the cinema. If the movies are getting distributed, film festivals become an important part of letting audiences know what they should watch, guiding them to the great and good of filmmaking.

Throw in the success of streamers across the region with their interest in showing Arab content and suddenly, the market for films in the region has exploded. And where better to see them first, then at a film festival where directors and stars will attend to present their movies and where those who want to get into filmmaking are shown pathways to do so.