Middle East and Africa’s largest cinema convention underlines growing opportunities and challenges in the MEA region

META Cinema Forum brings cinema stakeholders from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, CIS Countries and Turkey as experts discussing the creative economy’s growth and how the cinema industry contributes.

Dubai, October 25, 2022 

The fifth edition of the hugely successful META Cinema Forum took off today at the Atlantis the Palm Island with renewed optimism following the opening of some large-format cinema screens a few months after the industry had started operating at full capacity. 

As many as 56 exhibition stands are displaying the latest products, services, and new technology from a select group of industry suppliers, technology providers and industry stakeholders at the convention, where more than 44 industry officials and experts are sharing their views through speeches, presentations, training and workshops, etc. on the current market situation, challenges and ways to overcome them. 

More than 500 delegates, visitors, buyers, sellers and other industry stakeholders are participating in the event to address the shortage of feature films, documentary movies and other film genres, among other issues. 

META Cinema Forum will be participated by several global cinema industry leaders, including Toby Tennant, Senior Vice-President for EMEA Theatrical Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures International; Tonis Kiis, Senior Vice President for International Distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures; Paul Higginson, Executive Vice-President, EMEA of Universal Pictures International; Toni El Massih, Managing Director – Cinemas, VOX Cinemas; Andrew Such, CEO of AMC Cinemas; John Schreiner, Senior Vice President for Theatrical Development in EMEA, at IMAX Corporation and Zaur Darabadeh, Chairman of the Board of CinemaPlus, among other global leaders. 

The two-day event will see powerful presentations from Saudi Arabia, Asia and Africa, the future of large-format cinema halls, and the prospects of streaming services, technology disruptions and other subjects. 

At the two-day META Cinema Forum, experts are addressing the demand-supply mismatch in film contents and theatre facilities across the Middle East and Africa that will be concluded on October 26, 2022. 

Apart from the Middle East and African countries, cinema industry stakeholders from Turkey, Asia and CIS countries have joined the META Cinema Forum, making it a truly global cinema industry convention that has become one of the must-attend global cinema conventions. 

The two-day mega cinema industry conference will be followed by a three-day META Film Fest that will screen over 70 shortlisted full feature films, documentaries, and short films, along with premieres of highly anticipated releases of 2022 at the VOX Cinemas at the Nakheel Mall. 

“META Cinema Forum has successfully re-positioned the region’s cinema industry on the global map, so much so that large-scale investment has widened the theatre facilities across the region. The industry is currently gearing up to increase the supply of good quality content and regional blockbusters that will pull more viewers to the cinema halls,” Leila Masinaei, Managing Partner, Great Mind Events Management – organizer of the META Cinema Forum, said. 

“META Cinema Forum has become a global industry convention for which international cinema industry suppliers, technology providers, and other industry stakeholders prepare and launch their latest innovations. As a result, we can see several global cinema industry suppliers have lined up new products and services for the industry.” 

META Cinema Forum has been supporting the development of the creative economy that the governments are now promoting. META Cinema Forum also boosts the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy that aims to transform the emirate of Dubai into an international destination for creativity and the capital of the creative economy by 2025.

The Dubai Creative Economy Strategy aims to double the creative industries’ contribution to Dubai’s GDP from 2.6 per cent in 2020 to 5 per cent by 2025. It also seeks to more than double the number of Dubai-based creative companies from 8,300 in 2020 to 15,000 by 2025 and more than double the number of creators based in the emirate, from 70,000 in 2020 to 140,000 by 2025.

META Cinema Forum is the first and, so far, the only cinema industry-focused convention in the Middle East and Africa region that has one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries in the world where governments and the private sector are investing heavily in entertainment facilities to diversify economies and reduce dependency on a single economic sector. 

META Cinema Forum is sponsored by Farrat, among other partners. Stephen Lloyd, Marketing Manager, Farrat, says, “Farrat is a proud sponsor of the 5^th META Cinema Forum and is looking forward to networking with all the stakeholders involved in the regional growth of such a dynamic industry. This year we will be pleased to share our experience and technical knowledge in the world of acoustic isolation through various case studies.” 

META Cinema Forum is well supported by Strategic Partner VOX Cinemas, Supporting Partner National Film Authority; Cinema and Industry Partners AMC Cinemas, Cinepolis, Maison SU, Cinemarine, Golden Scene, CineBodrum and Film House Cinemas, StarzPlay, Cinema Plus, Empire Cinemas, The Big Picture, Reel Cinemas, Star Cinemas, among many others. 

Warner Bros, Universal Studio, Empire Entertainment, Film One Entertainment and Tiger Films are among its Studio and Distribution Partners.