ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Over 500 people gathered at the University of Mosul on Thursday for the launch of the second annual Nineveh International Film Festival to celebrate regional cinema and watch competing international films.
"I believe the participating films—three from the city of Mosul and three from the Kurdistan Region—carry very good themes and content," Mohammed Mahdi, head of the festival's evaluation and selection committee, told Rudaw's Payam Sarbast.
The three-day festival features 28 films competing for awards that were selected from 400 submissions representing 65 countries.
Beyond the screenings, the event includes fashion shows and art exhibitions designed to highlight the city's rich history, though Kurdish filmmakers have a relatively limited presence at this year's gathering.
"The films were divided into short, feature, and animation categories, and we were able to be fair in selecting films from each category,” said Ihsan Daadouch, a member of the festival jury and an Iraqi actor.
Daadouch noted that the “festival, in its second edition, shows great development in terms of preparation, organization, and the types of participating films.”
"The country is very safe and very beautiful. Thank God I came, and I am happy to have seen the complete opposite of what we had expected," said Egyptian actress Mai Hassan.
The inaugural festival took place in February last year.
