The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) announced few days back about the launch of the Dubai Film Market. The new initiative is in accordance with DIFF's commitment to raising the visibility of world cinema with an emphasis on Arab, Asian and African filmmakers and stimulating regional and international film production and trade.

The Dubai Film Market will facilitate the exchange of rights, services or product ownership. It will also empower buyers and sellers with industry knowledge and simplify the transaction of content trading.

The main highlight of the Dubai Film Market is the introduction of a revolutionary process to acquire audio-visual content, ("Content"), through Cinetech, a digitized film library that will include feature films, documentaries, short films and TV content. Cinetech will help participants browse and screen through a multitude of film titles. The initial archive will consist of over 200 titles, with the aspiration to grow year on year.

"Dubai Film Market is a concept that resulted from the absence of an international content market in the region. Dubai is already the region's hub for media and technology and it has established itself as a source of incomparable infrastructure for filmmaking and production. The Dubai Film Market is a natural progression as it is designed to gradually establish Dubai as the regional centre for discovery and trade of Content that will benefit the rapidly evolving film, media and technology industry at large" said Abdul Hamid Juma, Chairman of DIFF.

Expanding the concept further, Ziad Yaghi, Director of the Dubai Film Market said, "The Dubai Film Market will revolutionize the way content acquisition takes place. Cinetech content will be thoroughly filtered and served to Film Market participants through the most innovative technology. It will also provide people involved in the TV, home video and film industries with a networking platform to discover future trends and trade content on a global level".

Content providers from across the globe are invited to trade during the Dubai Film Market, which is diversified to include all genres of Content such as feature films, documentaries, short films and TV content.

The Dubai Film Market will take place during the Dubai International Film Festival which will run from December 11 to 18, 2008.