Dubai Duty Free, the largest single airport retailer in the world, will be the presenting sponsor of the Dublin Arabic Film Festival (DAFF) for the sixth year running when the festival opens on Friday. The film festival, which gets underway at the Irish Film Institute (IFI) in Temple Bar, Dublin on Friday, 4th of October is the brainchild of the multi Oscar nominated film maker, Jim Sheridan and film maker Zahara Moufid.

This year, DAFF is especially proud to announce that the award-winning actor, Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, Hunger, The Wind That Shakes the Barley) will be the event's festival patron. The connection with Jim Sheridan and Dubai Duty Free all began some years ago when the world-renowned film maker was a juror on the panel of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). At the time Dubai Duty Free was a sponsor of DIFF and over the course of the festival Jim met with several members of the management team at Dubai Duty Free including Colm McLoughlin, the Executive Vice Chairman of Dubai Duty Free and Sinead El Sibai, Senior Vice President of Marketing. The trio chatted many times with Jim remarking that he was really amazed by the level of skill and standard of films that were being made in the Arab world. Sometime later, Zahara Moufid, a Moroccan film maker living in Dublin asked Jim if would be interested in working with her on an Arabian themed film festival in Dublin. The aim, Zahara suggested, was to share some of the best Arab and North African films with Irish audiences. Jim thought it was fabulous idea and approached Dubai Duty Free to see if it might be an interesting project for the airport retailer to get involved with. Fortunately, it was, and Dubai Duty Free agreed to become the presenting sponsor of the Dublin Arabic Film Festival in 2014. That same year, Omar Sharif, the acting legend and one of the greatest movie stars of all time was the guest of honour in the first edition of DAFF. In its inaugural year the festival showcased some of Omar’s classic movies including Lawrence of Arabia and the last piece of work he made before he died, Monsieur Ibrahim.

This year’s festival will include five films at the IFI including the curtain-raiser The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, Muayad Alayan’s drama centred on the clandestine affair between a Palestinian deliveryman and an Israeli cafe owner. Stephanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff's documentary about Saudi poet Hissa Hilal, The Poetess, and Soudade Kaadan's Syrian drama The Day I Lost My Shadow will screen on Saturday 5th. The final two festival films, The Tower from director Mats Grorud and Nour Eddine Lakhmari's Burnout, will hit the big screen on Sunday 6th; Burnout will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director Nour Eddine Lakhmari and producer Khadija Alami. A free screening of Oscar-nominated animation The Breadwinner will be presented by Oscar winner Nora Twomey and Jim Sheridan at Chester Beatty library at 14.00 on Saturday 5th.

Speaking ahead of this year’s DAFF, Colm McLoughlin Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free said; 'We are very pleased to return to Dublin once again to support the sixth edition of the Dublin Arabic Film Festival. The links between Ireland and the Arab world continue to grow stronger with each passing year, and we have seen that through the number of Irish people travelling to Dubai for both business and leisure, as well as UAE nationals visiting Ireland. Ireland has been doing business with the UAE for many years and it is important to continually build on our core business and cultural relationships.'

According to Tourism Ireland, screen tourism to Ireland is a growing trend with 71,000 travellers from the Gulf visiting Ireland last year. The UAE is the biggest market, with 51% of GCC visitors coming from the Emirates. Popular series such as Game of Thrones and the latest series of Star Wars films have been shot at various locations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, providing a welcome boost to the tourism economy.

Attending the opening night of DAFF on the 4th of October, will be Dubai Duty Free’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sinead El Sibai, a Dublin native who has been living in Dubai for over 30 years. Sinead is married to a Lebanese man and enjoys a multi-cultural work life balance in the Middle Eastern city. The glitzy red carpet night will be attended by all of the Arab ambassadors including the UAE Ambassador to Ireland H.E. Mr. Sultan Mohamed Majed Al Ali, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates. Other special guests on the night will include actor, Liam Cunningham, Moroccan film makers Nour Eddine Lakhmari and Kadija Alami who will be accompanied by The Moroccan Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Lahcen Mahraoui and representatives of associate sponsor, The Arab Irish Chamber of Commerce.

Speaking in advance of DAFF Sinead said, 'Dubai Duty Free is no stranger to the arts and was a founding sponsor of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). Our company is a sponsor of the annual Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and we sponsor ChoirFest Middle East. The Dubai Duty Free’s own choral ensemble, ‘The Dubai Duty Free Nightingales’ have been awarded 'Best A Cappella Performance' at the ChoirFest Middle East 2019. The 22-member Dubai Duty Free choir features full time employees representing a number of different departments, including Marketing, Finance, IT, HR, Corporate Responsibility, Customer Service and Operations. The Dubai Duty Free choral ensemble has participated in the ChoirFest ME for the past six years and has won four times: winning the 'Best Corporate Choir' three times (2015/2017/2018) and the 'Most Dynamic Choir' in 2016.DAFF is a premium festival and offers audiences an interesting insight into Arab culture. We enjoy working with the team and are looking forward to another great film festival'

In the UK Dubai Duty Free sponsor horse racing in Newbury and Ascot and in Ireland, the company is the title sponsor of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. The company also owns and run the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships which is a major tennis tournament held in February each year.

Over the past five years, DAFF has attracted dedicated movie fans, directors and actors from all over the world including Dubai, Egypt and Morocco. International and Irish famous faces at the festival over the years include Omar Sharif, U2’s, The Edge, actress Amy Huberman, singer Damien Dempsey, and ambassadors from several Arab countries.

Commenting on this year’s programme, Jim Sheridan said, 'This year there is a common theme of displacement which runs through many of the films we have selected. We live in strange times, where it quite often seems that society is becoming less tolerant of different cultures. This festival aims to embrace difference and to encourage tolerance. It further aims to create greater understanding of the Arab world, its people and the wonderful films that are currently being made in the region. It is also a huge honour for us that two Moroccan filmmakers, director, Nour Eddine Lakhmari and producer, Khadija, Alami will also join us for the festival bringing it to a close on Sunday, 6th October. Both film makers have great talent and will take questions about the filmmaking in the Arab world after Burnout screens on final day.' Jim continued, 'I also want to take use this opportunity to thank Zahara Moufid who co-curated this festival for her great work. We hope the audiences will enjoy the choice of the movies as much as we do'.