Geekdom, big reveals and the greatest hits from first two days of MEFCC

Among the biggest draws on day two were panels with Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost, but there were plenty to reasons to celebrate on the local front, too.

Fans in costume at the fifth edition of Middle East Film & Comic Con. Ali Haider / EPA

Big-name celebrity guests mingled with costumed fans as the Dubai World Trade Centre was transformed into a geek’s paradise over the weekend for the fifth annual Middle East Film & Comic Con, which started on Thursday and comes to a close tonight.

DWTC has been home to the convention for the past three years, but yet another expansion of the increasingly popular event – three days of movie and comics-­themed mayhem – meant it had to move round the corner to the venues newest halls, the recently opened Za’abeel 4,5 and 6.

All the old favourites were there, including Artists’ Alley, the Comic and Gaming Zones and the ever-­popular outdoor arena – but with more space dedicated to them and with more food options. Long-standing favourite international corporate participants, including Marvel and Disney, were there, too.

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The event’s steady growth looks set to continue. There was a time when day one offered a relaxed opportunity to pick up your tickets before the queues really started to form on Friday’s day two, and you could take a couple of hours to get your bearings in the halls before the chaos really began. Not this year.

By mid-afternoon on Thursday, the place was packed even though there were no major guest appearances planned for the day, and many of the attendees we spoke to were wondering how busy it was going to get once the big names showed up.

By Friday morning’s official opening press conference, organisers were confidently predicting that the total attendance would top 60,000, an increase of about 10 per cent from last year’s headcount of 54,000.

Among the biggest draws on day two were panels with Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost, but there was plenty of local action, too.

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The Dubai-produced animated feature film Bilal unveiled its final trailer in anticipation of its release this year, while Sunset State director Mustafa Abbas presented a screening of Saraab, his latest collaboration as a producer, this time with his friend Salma Serry in the director's chair. The film will also screen at the Cannes Short Film Corner next month.

There was more good news on the local front from Fat Brothers Productions' S A Zaidi, director of the Dubai-based alien-invasion movie Aerials. He had shown us a clip of the movie at last year's event, and although he had no footage to share with visitors this year, the movie's poster was unveiled, and Zaidi revealed that a distribution deal was in place for the UAE and we can look forward to a probable summer cinema release. Online and DVD distribution will follow.

Meanwhile, local comic-book creators Yasser Alireza and Zaid Adham, who were at last year's show auctioning art to raise money for the self-publication of their comic Wayl, were back with copies for sale. Books from the initial print run, with a limited-edition, MEFCC-exclusive cover, were available for Dh100. The regular edition will soon be released for Dh30 – check www.waylcomic.com for more details.

Day two closed with an official after-party at The Toy Room, headlined by a late addition to the line-up – Darryl McDaniels, also known as DMC of the hip-hop group Run-DMC. His attendance hadn’t been widely announced in advance, so there were some surprised faces when visitors spotted a hip-hop pioneer roaming the halls of DWTC, and further delight when he took to the decks to round off a highly successful first two days of this year’s show.