Gulf Film Festival, the annual event celebrating Gulf cinema held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, is encouraging film production locally by UAE nationals through its third annual Script Competition.

Read more

The third Gulf Film Festival (GFF), an annual event celebrating Gulf cinema, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, is currently receiving submissions from students of all nationalities for its Student Competition for documentary and short films.

The competition is open to works made or produced by students of all nationalities during their academic study or as part of a college project. GCC national students can submit films on any subject while all other nationalities must submit films that pertain to life in the Gulf.

Read more

BurJuman continues to ‘rock’ during DSF. As part of its exciting DSF calendar of events and activities, the mall’s new Mystery Box competition launch this week is sure to get minds ticking and people talking. BurJuman is a key sponsor of DSF 2010.

Offering people the chance to guess their way to a fantastic Dhs 50,000 prize, the Mystery Box competition has a very simple participation formula. All participants need to do is guess the item that is inside the box. And to help the guessing process, BurJuman is providing a clue that is being aired daily on radio and also is available in newspapers. Inside the mall as well clue boards have been placed to help shoppers and visitors guess the mystery item.

Read more

• Submissions by students of all nationalities invited for total prize money of AED60,000

The third Gulf Film Festival (GFF), an annual event celebrating Gulf cinema, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, is currently receiving submissions from students of all nationalities for its Student Competition for documentary and short films. Read more

The Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment, organizers of Dubai Shopping Festival, has begun receiving entries for the DSF 2010 Photography Award, an initiative established since 1996 to honour the efforts of press photographers in the UAE and the region.

Only press photographers are eligible to take part in the Award. The categories for this year are DSF Celebrations and DSF Shopping. Photographs in the Celebrations category should ideally reflect the slogan of Dubai Shopping festival – One World, One Family, One Festival. Additionally, the images should cover the multi cultural aspect of Dubai and DSF in the form of visitors, tourists, and families.

Entries in the ‘Shopping’ category should highlight the various shopping opportunities during DSF and capture the excitement of shopping in Dubai’s numerous luxurious malls, souks, and streets.

While the winners will receive a trophy and prize money of $5000, runners-up will receive $4000, and third prize winners will collect $3000. The application form for the DSF 2010 Photography Award can now be downloaded from the DSF website with the link http://www.mydsf.ae/pdf/Photography_application_formA4.pdf.

Four teams of junior chefs have secured their place in the semi finals of the UAE’s first ever Anchor MasterChef competition, fighting off competition from some of the top hotels in the country.

After an intense two days of basting, tasting, toasting and roasting, the teams – consisting of one hot kitchen chef and one pastry chef – were whittled down from a total of twenty next-generation gourmets, representing kitchens from Emirates Towers Hotel, Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek, Grosvenor House Hotel, Coral Boutique Hotel, Emirates Golf Club, Westin Mina Seyahi Hotel and Hilton Jumeriah Hotel.

Read more

Emirates, the UAE’s leading association for financial and investment professionals, has today officially launched the country’s first National Investment Research Challenge.   All universities and business schools are invited to compete.

The nationwide competition, which starts next month, concluding with a final in March, will help develop understanding and awareness amongst business students in how the investment markets work.  It is an educational initiative in which leading industry professionals will guide teams of three to four business and finance students, in researching and reporting on a publicly traded company.  It consists of analyzing a public company, mentoring by a professional research analyst, writing a research report and presenting its results and recommendations to a high profile panel of experts.  Marks are awarded to each team on the basis of their investment case, their delivery and their ability to answer and respond to detailed analysis from the judges.

Read more

Some of the Middle East’s most promising culinary talent will be basting, tasting, toasting and roasting over three days in Dubai for a chance to be crowned ‘Anchor MasterChef’ 2010.

Fonterra, the world’s largest dairy exporter, received entries from junior chefs working in the most elite kitchens in the UAE. At least eight teams of two will start their cordon bleu cook-off on Sunday. [10 January]. Each team consists of one hot kitchen chef and one pastry chef who will be representing both themselves and their establishment.

Read more

12 selected works to feature in DIFF 2010 tabletop calendar

The Dubai International Film Festival, the leading cinema event of the Middle East, Africa and new Asia, today announced its second school painting competition for children under 12. The contest, which focused on Dubai schools in 2008, has been extended to schools across the nation this year.

Children in the age group 5-12 can submit drawings and paintings in any medium, including crayons, watercolors, acrylic and oil paints, through their schools. Entry to the competition is free, and all entries should reflect the theme ‘Children and Film.’ Twelve finalists will feature in the DIFF 2010 tabletop calendar.

Mahsa Motamedi, Director of Marketing and Sponsorship said the annual competition is part of DIFF’s community outreach campaign, aimed at strengthening the involvement of students in the Festival, honoring children’s outlook on cinema and supporting their creativity.

Read more

The organizing committee of “Summer in My Country” activities launched its competition programme in cooperation with Dubai Summer Surprises. The competitions include several heritage, sports, cultural, and social activities to be held inside the premises of sports halls, cultural and social centers all over the UAE and sports clubs.

The event line-up was announced during a press conference held on Wednesday, July 1, at the Dubai Sports Council that was attended by , Assistant Secretary General of the Sports ‘&’ Youth General Authority Khalid Al-Midfa; Coordinator General of Dubai Shopping Festival Office Ibrahim Saleh.

Al-Midfa assured that the competitions would continue till the end of July 30 referring to the fact that the programme includes sports and cultural activities as part of creating a new educated and informed generation. He said, “The programme will begin with “my vision” competition that is organized in line with the book of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, UAE Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The competition will review extractions of the book to improve reading skills of students.” He explained that the committee will continue receiving applications till July 25 at the Dubai Municipality Club whilst it will be open for all students in all cultural, social and sports centers in the UAE. The first three winners will be honoured in a final ceremony.

Furthermore, Ibrahim Saleh emphasized the cooperation and the involvement of Dubai Summer Surprises for the first time, stressing the fact that DSS has always aimed at organizing and hosting events that benefit the younger generations since the first edition in 1998. The role of Dubai Summer Surprises in this particular context would concentrate on promoting the events of �Summer in My country 2009′ he added.

The event also includes various competitions: selecting the best folkloric costume with the heritage competition and another one about selecting the best local dish as well as making local bread and sweets.

The sports activities satisfy the skills of students and are set for boys and girls between 14-20 years. All swimming activities will be held in Dubai Municipality Club and competitors must be able to swim at distances of within the range of 25metres freestyle, 25metres backstroke, 50metres freestyle and 50metres backstroke, pass the medical checkup. The other activities will be held in Al Mamzar Park for boys only and include running and cycling competitions on condition that every team must include 3 competitors including cyclists, swimmers who can swim for at least 200metres, and runners who can run for a distance of 1km.

In addition, Al Dhaid Shooting Club will organize a shooting competition on 26th July on where every social, cultural and sports center will have the right to nominate 5 players to participate; all results will based on the Olympic calculations and the first three winners will obtain prizes. Soccer lovers will have the chance to participate in the football competition at Al Shabab Club in Dubai with teams of 8 members and 2 substitutes. Al Mamzar park will also organize the beach football competition on 28th June for boys and girls between 14-20 years old. Dubai and Sharjah Ladies Clubs will also organize volleyball and basketball competitions for girls on 8th July.