At just 22, Emirati filmmaker Ali Fuad is already building the kind of career he once dreamed of while sitting in dark theaters at the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children & Youth. “I’ve attended since I was 16,” he says. “I would watch screenings and Q&As with filmmakers and tell myself, ‘One day that’s going to be me.’”

This year, Fuad comes full circle with two documentaries in the official selection: “Oh Yamal,” a meditation on the UAE’s pearl diving past, and “Guardians of the Mountains,” an exploration of tribal traditions preserved for over millennia.

The Sharjah Pipeline

For Fuad, SIFF has been more than a platform — it has been a pipeline. He served as a junior juror in 2021, an experience he credits with sharpening his critical eye. “They treated us as profession

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