Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic W. might seem an unlikely choice to open a film festival in a region where the outgoing American President is widely reviled. But notwithstanding a march by clerics, that is the movie that will open the fifth Dubai International Film Festival tonight, putting a provocative twist on the philosophy of its founder, Neil Stephenson, of building bridges through the medium of film.

The festival’s chairman, Abdulhamid Juma, explains: “Many new film festivals are about attracting tourism or building a film industry, but we wanted to bridge the cultural and political gap — post-9/11 — through culture and not politics.” Dubya in Dubai presents a bit of both.

But Stephenson left the festival acrimoniously in 2006 and in another controversial twist he is now suing Juma and the festival’s managing director, Shivani Pandya, in the High Court in London, claiming that he was forced out, and that Juma labelled him an Arab-hater and a racist. Despite that bitterness, the Dubai festival has become the hottest ticket in the Arab film world and the highlight of the cultural calendar in the Vegas of the Gulf. Stars expected this year include Goldie Hawn, Salma Hayek, Brendan Fraser, Danny Glover and Nicolas Cage.

Oil prices may have hit their lowest levels in four years last week but Arab film-makers have reaped the benefits of the record-high prices from the flux of oil dollars. That wealth, combined with the business savvy of booming emirates such as Dubai, has given a platform for Arabs to tell their own tales through a number of new Arab film festivals and a new focus on Arab films.

“From the Arab and Muslim point of view,” Juma says, “we wanted to have an opportunity to tell who we were, not have people say who we are. With its 200 nationalities, we though Dubai was the best place to do this.”

The Dubai festival offers several sections for Arab films, including Arabian Nights, the Muhr Awards for Excellence in Arab Cinema, and Gulf Voices, which showcases film-makers from the Gulf region.

Among the 12 Arab films contending for a Muhr Award this year are the Palestinian director Najwar Najja’s Pomegranates and Myrhh; Thalathoun, a Tunisia epic from director Fadhel Jaziri; Mostefa ben Boulaid, by Ahmed Rachidy of Algeria; and Abdellatif Abdelhamid’s Ayyam el Dhajar, set in the Golan Heights in 1958 as Egypt and Syria attempt to establish the United Arab Republic.

While glamorous guests play a part, the success of the festival has been secured through the same business acumen that has boosted the booming emirate into a top destination for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The festival spends heavily to ensure that guests have a positive experience from the moment they land in Dubai to the moment they depart.

For some wealthy Arabs, a film festival of one’s own is the new must-have status symbol. There are now dozens in the region. Abu Dhabi has begun spending millions of dollars on its Middle East International Film Festival, founded two years ago, and which offers millions in prize money alone.

At the International Film Festival of Marrakesh, founded in 2001, dinner with the king for several hundred guests, and a stay, for some, in the exclusive Hotel La Marmounia, are part of the programme. Next year, the march of the stars to the Arab world will continue with a new festival in Doha, Qatar, organised by Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Film Festival. This New York festival was itself founded as a bridge-builder in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, and De Niro said last month that Tribeca Festival Doha aimed to play a role in bringing cultures closer together.

“It all comes down to who has the most money,” said Ezzat Abou-Ouf, president of the oldest film festival in the Middle East, the Cairo International Film Festival, which this year included an Islam in International Cinema section when it took place last month. Yet although it is still considered to be the biggest draw for film-makers from the region, the Cairo festival faced empty cinemas during the event this year. What was once the chief attraction for the locals — the sex scenes in foreign films — are now a common sight in Egypt thanks to the spread of satellite television.

“Locals don’t care about the festival,” says the Cairo-based blogger Maryanne Gabbani. “It’s about one-upmanship. Exactly the same thing has gone on in the Gulf States with horse racing. They all want to have these events and each one wants to do it better than the last.”

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