The Dubai International Film Festival has announced that this year’s edition will include a focus on French cinema.

The 2009 programme – In Focus France – is being held in recognition of the country’s rich cinematic history and importance to the Arab world as a co-producer.

Previous editions of the Dubai festival have screened French-Arab productions such as Abbas Fahdel’s Dawn Of The World and Samir Abdallah’s After The War.

The festival will also include, for the third time, a grant from Arte France Cinema of $8,109 (€6,000) to a project of outstanding originality. The sixth edition of the festival will take place December 9-16.