Abu Dhabi Film Commission today unveiled the finalists for the 2011 Shasha Grant. The Shasha Grant, now in its fifth year is the Film Commission’s international $100,000 screenwriting competition whose winner is chosen by industry professionals from around the world.

The Film Commission put out a call for feature-length scripts both in Arabic and English by filmmakers and scriptwriters from across the Middle East and other parts of the world. The winning filmmaker will receive a $100,000 development grant and assistance from the Film Commission to try and secure production financing.

The 2011 Shasha Grant six finalists are "3000 Nights" by Mai Masri - Palestine, "The Grave Digger" by Khadar Ahmed - Somalia, "Nothing Doing in Baghdad" by Maysoon Pachachi - UAE/Iraq, "Red Valentine" by Amin Matalqa - Jordan/USA, "Asmahan" by Ziad Hamzeh - Syria/USA and "Blessed Benefit" by Mahmoud Al Massad - Jordan "We continue to be immensely gratified by the range and quality of the scripts submitted for the Shasha Grant, which was established as part of our mission to support fresh voices from the Arab world," said Abu Dhabi Film Commission Director David Shepheard. "We look forward to the next stage of the contest in which the production teams for each project will pitch their projects to a panel of industry professionals."

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