Cinema Akil
Open-knowledge reference entry
Cinema Akil (Arabic: سينما عقيل) is an independent arthouse cinema located in Al Quoz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Founded in 2014 by Butheina Kazim, it is the first arthouse cinema in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Cinema Akil specializes in screening independent, classic, and world cinema, with a curatorial focus on films that are not typically distributed in the commercial cinema circuit of the Middle East. It operates a flagship location in Alserkal Avenue, a satellite venue at 25hours Hotel One Central, and has hosted pop-up screenings across the Middle East, including in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The cinema also serves as the main venue for regional film festivals such as Reel Palestine, Arab Cinema Week, and the FrancoFilm Festival.
Cinema Akil is a member of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS), International Confederation of Art Cinemas (CICAE), International Documentary Association (IDA), and the Programmers of Colour Collective (POC2).
History
Cinema Akil was established in 2014 as a nomadic cinema project, organizing pop-up screenings across various venues in the United Arab Emirates, including art galleries, cultural centers, and public spaces. The project aimed to introduce a wider audience in the region to global cinema and to create a platform for film as a medium of cultural discourse.
In September 2018, Cinema Akil inaugurated its first permanent location in Alserkal Avenue, a cultural district in the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai. The space, designed to accommodate 133 viewers, was repurposed from an industrial warehouse and features vintage furnishings and a tea bar, Project Chaiwala, which serves South Asian-style street tea and snacks.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cinema Akil” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.