With almost 200 films from more than 60 countries being screened in the capital over the next 10 days, the prospect of visiting the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) may seem daunting, but don’t worry. We’ll make it as simple as we can for you.
The first thing you need to know are the locations for the festival, and this is reassuringly simple. Screenings take place in just two locations – at the festival’s Emirates Palace headquarters and at Vox Cinemas in the Marina Mall, just around the corner.
Everything else – the red carpets, the workshops and talks, the gala screenings – take place at the Emirates Palace. Each venue has a box office, and a selection of tickets can also be bought online.
Tickets come in a variety of packages. For film buffs, the Dh400 festival pass is a must. This allows entry to all regular screenings (but not the opening or closing-night films, or the awards ceremony) up to a maximum of five screenings a day, so if you max your pass out over the festival’s 10 days, you’ll be paying less than Dh10 per film.
At the other end of the spectrum, single-screening tickets cost Dh30 per film.
Both of these options are available online or at the festival box offices.
There are also special discounted Dh20 single-screening tickets for students, but you have to visit the box office to get these.
There are also a selection of voucher packages available only from the box office, with six-screening voucher packs costing Dh150 and 12-voucher packs for Dh240. Again, these do not include the opening or closing films or awards.
The box office is already open and selling these – make sure you exchange your vouchers for tickets to the films you want to see early as popular films do sell out. Talks and workshops at the Emirates Palace are free to attend.
So, those are the basics. We’ll have plenty of tips and recommendations over the next 10 days, but it’s definitely worth collecting a festival programme from the box office and settling down with a nice cup of tea and a big marker pen to get some advance planning in – we’ll see you at the front row.
