The fourth edition of the Middle East and North Africa Film Festival will take place in Vancouver, BC Canada in late November, 2022.

MENA is Vancouver's first festival dedicated to films from the MENA/SWANA region. We are excited for the chance to continue showcasing stories and experiences from our local community, across Canada and the global diaspora.

We acknowledge that our festival is based off the unceded, ancestral and traditional and lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlí̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Vision

We seek films of any genre, with particular emphasis on original and experimental portrayals of the MENA/SWANA region that challenge stereotypes and bend colonial visions of the region and its diaspora. We welcome submissions from emerging as well as established artists from wherever MENA identities are found and forged.

COVID-19 Health and Safety Plan 2022: As long as the global pandemic stays with us, we continue to follow the latest health guidelines.. While we maintain a flexible outlook regarding the format and venue of our festival in November, our decision to provide an in-person, hybrid or fully digital platform will be based entirely on the latest community health and safety recommendations as set forth by provincial and federal health bodies and informed  with the safety of our immediate community paramount.

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We welcome all genres and all themes with a special attention to those films addressing our relationship to land and climate change, as well as genres our region is reclaiming, such as horror, sci-fi and fantasy.

This year, we also accept children’s films in the hopes of showcasing a kids screening.

Rules & Terms

- We consider no cultural or national identity rooted in the so-called Middle East as canonical. Whether as MENA, SWANA, WANA or any other delimiter of the region, we  leave it in the hands of our prospective submitters how they identify with the region. By the same token, our programming strives to represent heterogeneous regional and sub-ethnic identities within the larger Middle East and North Africa that have often been amalgamated in official narratives of nation-state: be they aboriginal, nomad, sub-national linguistic groupings and other identities that don't fall neatly into any orientalist image of MENA/SWANA.

We also seek immigrant narratives from ethnic and linguistic enclaves across the diaspora: pan-Arabic, West Asian and Persic, religious heterodoxy; as well as personal identities that interface with a post-modern politics: queer, post-colonial, anti-racist and indigenous selfhood.

Categories

This festival showcases

• Feature films (no more than 140 minutes);
• Short films (30 minutes or less);
• Documentary;
• Experimental and multimedia.

Awards

As selected by an independent jury of industry and community

Scarlet Pomegranate Award

Recognizing overall artistry, storytelling, technical achievement and beauty

Buraq Award

Recognizing films that break the mold, experiment and help us see  the region and its experiences in a new light.

Audience Choice Award

Top rated film chosen by audiences through in-festival balloting.

Submission Guidelines

• Works must have a significant (more than half) representation of MENA/SWANA-identifying people in key creative roles OR the subject matter must largely treat the region/identity in some significant way (see above for what we mean by MENA/SWANA).
• Films in a language other than English must have English subtitles.
• All submissions, by established or emerging artists, are welcome and will be guaranteed two screenings during the adjudication process; films by artists 30 and under or who are "breaking into" the industry will be given particular consideration as part of our effort for NEW GENERATION filmmakers to reach a wider public.
• All genres are welcome, and experimental and original portrayals of the MENA/SWANA region are encouraged (see "Vision" above).
• If your film is selected for the 2022 MENA Film Festival, you must submit a DCP file and a ProRes 422 Quicktime backup file. Files must be delivered on an external hard drive or USB flash drive and be received no later than Monday, October 3rd, 2022.
• If your film is selected, in addition to the DCP file, the following material is required for promotional use by Monday, Septembre 5th, 2022.
  
  1. Minimum of 2 film stills;
  2. Film poster;
  3. A trailer (format: mp4 HD 1920 x 1080);
  4. A logline and a short film description (100 words);
  5. Director’s photo and short bio.
• As a non-profit, we do rely upon submission fees to help cover costs of reviewing and programming films. Keeping our commitment to young artists and community accessibility in-mind, however, we are providing a limited number of *20* fee waivers to filmmakers. While we do not delve into the personal circumstances of each request, we may ask follow-up questions, and we expect that those asking for a waiver are being honest about their circumstance and are aware that receiving a waiver may deprive others of the same opportunity.

To request a waiver, please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/VXXjb6x8Bhh9XLM1A.

We will be considering waiver requests and provide a response by February 10th and again on April 10.