Dubai International Film Festival To Return In December 2027, As 2026 Edition Of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival Looks Uncertain

The United Arab Emirates’ Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) is being revived following a 10-year hiatus, although not in the same format as the original event.

Mona Ghanem Al Marri, Vice Chairperson and Managing Director of the Dubai Media Council and President of the Dubai Press Club announced the event’s return at the Arab Media Summit on Thursday.

She said it would be organized under the umbrella of the Dubai Films and Games Commission, part of the Dubai Media Council, and take place from December 8, 2027.

The announcement comes a decade after the festival’s unexpected and sudden demise in the spring of 2018, after a successful 14 edition run from 2004.

The event, unfolding in Dubai’s Jumeirah Beach complex was one of the biggest Middle East film festivals at the time, and its demise sent shockwaves through the burgeoning Arab film industry.

Al Marri suggested in her announcement that the new festival will not be in exactly the same vein as the original, which was known for its glitzy red carpets, industry events, and openness to films pushing the social and political envelope.

“Today we bring back the festival, but we don’t bring the past,” Al Marri said. “The region today is different and filmmaking is different.”

Deadline has heard from sources in the region that the aim is for the event to be family friendly and apolitical in its selection of films.

News of the DIFF revival comes just weeks after the announcement of the second edition of the privately backed Golden Dunes Festival in Dubai in November.

The demise of the original DIFF was seen as a blow for the emerging local film industry as well as the Emirate’s film-related soft power.

The impact was not felt so keenly regionally because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the entire global film festival circuit for two years from early 2020, and the rise of Saudi Arabia as the Middle East’s main film and entertainment hub following the lifting of its 35-year-old cinema ban at the end of 2017.

Uncertainty over 2026 Edition of Red Sea

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Fund (RSIFF) fwhich launched in 2021 was seen as having filled the void, with its high-profile Hollywood guests, burgeoning market and industry events, and wide Middle East and international participation eclipsing Dubai in recent editions.

The announcement of the DIFF revival comes at a difficult time for the entire Gulf reason due to the U.S.-Israeli-Iran war, which began with U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on February 28.

Aside from retaliatory strikes on neighboring territories, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, Iran has also sought to take control of the Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, a key shipping route for their oil and other goods.

Although Iran’s initial attacks on its neighbors have died down, there is no end in sight to the seven-month Iran-U.S.-Israel conflict, even if U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that it was “toward the end”.

In the backdrop, there are questions over whether the Red Sea International Film Festival, scheduled to take place from December 3 to 12 in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, will go ahead.

Aside from the threat of Iranian missile strikes, Saudi Arabia is also dealing with a flareup in its conflict with the Iran-backed Houthi group.

The group has advanced into Yemen in recent days to take up positions along its Red Sea Coast including the port of Mocha, allowing it to attack Saudi Arabia more easily as well as shipping lanes in the Red Sea, on the opposite side of the country from the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that it had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone south of the Islamic holy city of Mecca, some 50 miles east of Jeddah. The Houthis have denied launching an attack on the city, considered the holiest site in Islam.

Deadline has contacted the Red Sea International Film Festival for an update on whether the 2026 edition will go ahead or not, but has not heard back.

In the meantime, Qatar’s Doha Film Festival is pushing on with plans for its second edition running from November 19 to 27, 2026.