MUMBAI: Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) chairman Abdulhamid Juma has reinforced DIFF’s commitment towards promoting cross cultural dialogue at the recently held Shanghai International Film Festival.

DIFF was invited by the festival’s management to share views on its evolution as an international platform that seeks to bring both the eastern and western cinematic cultures closer.

Heads of the world’s top film festivals gathered together to create a dialogue and inspire communications and tolerance. The gathering is one of the foremost platforms for film festival heads to network and share innovative ideas on best practices including funding and sponsorship, distribution and resource management.

The forum witnessed representation from nearly 300 industry representatives including talks from heads of some of the most significant and prestigious film festivals on the planet such as Jerome Paillard of Cannes, Geoffery Gilmore from Sundance, Marco Mueller of Venice, Sandra den Hammer of Rotterdam and James Hindman of the American Film Institute.

Speaking at the forum, Abdulhamid Juma highlighted DIFF’s position as one of the world’s premier destination for discovering excellence in Arab filmmaking, “While focusing on DIFF’s tradition to support the Arab filmmaking community, DIFF will continue to bring in works of dynamic international filmmakers that the festival’s audience would otherwise not have the opportunity to view.”

Juma, who has been involved with the film festival’s operations since its inception in 2004, spoke at a panel entitled: ‘International Film Festival Heads Summit’ in which he outlined best practices for strategic operations and management, and shared insights with Shanghai International Film Festival Executive vice Chairman Ren Zhonglun, Tokyo International Film Festival Director Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Hawaii International Film Festival Director Chuck Boller and Pusan International Film Festival Director Kim Dong-ho.