Advanced Media Trading returned with CINETomorrow, another edition of its digital cinema community event on January 11, which served as an interactive intersection of digital cinema, virtual production, and sustainability.
The three-day open house was held at Advanced Media’s Dubai headquarters and welcomed up to 300 filmmakers, visionaries, students, and industry experts every day. Advanced Media welcomed guests from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Oman, and Lebanon who had flown in exclusively for the event.
“CINETomorrow is an avenue that allows our enthusiastic guests to discover the latest advancements in digital cinema and to learn about sustainability for the first time and adopt green practices such as relying on cutting-edge cloud technology and virtual production,” said Kaveh Farnam, renowned producer and chairperson of Advanced Media.
Advanced Media’s showroom was converted to accommodate three different sets aptly named Nation, Nature and Knowledge to showcase the range and capabilities of digital cinema equipment in outdoor, indoor, and virtual production settings. The sets were intentionally designed to first and foremost pay homage to the rich culture and history of the UAE, and how the exemplary leadership envision the future. “Our commitment to sustainability and community are one of the main reasons we have set ourselves apart in the industry,” said Parnian Farnam, Head of CSR. “Knowledge, education, and development are the cornerstones of Advanced Media’s mission statement. We really wanted to create environmental awareness throughout the event including the workshops.”
CINETomorrow included nine workshops of 90 minutes each and broken down into three main themes: Light, Sound, Action! Behind the Scenes, and Future of Cinema. The free-to-attend workshops attracted up to 65 attendees each. On day one, Simon Battensby conducted the Lighting for Drama workshop followed by Microphone Selection for Different Film Genres powered by Sennheiser’s Ryan Burr and sound specialist Simon Charles and culminated with the launch of Sony Burano and Changing the Way You Shoot Cinema with Tim Fare-Matthews.
Day two covered the crucial steps behind the scenes of a production which had masterfully been curated by Mark ‘Hobz’ Hobson and Mostafa Salah in three workshops. In this series, attendees experienced Red Cameras in action and learnt hands-on about choosing the right optics for a shoot that was later edited in the Workflow and Post workshop.
Finally, day three focused on how environmental concerns have shifted productions from physical to digital with cloud technology and virtual production. Filipe Pereira, a dynamic figure in the cinema and sustainability scene, dissected the core departments of the industry, evaluated their environmental footprints, and ended by offering solutions that were highlighted by M&E technology expert Iain Churchill-Coleman in workshop powered by Editshare to Master Remote Production for Video Editors, and Simon Battensby who emphasised the importance of lighting a virtual production set properly to achieve a convincing final image.
While the community event is always brand-agnostic, there were representations from well-known brands such as Sony, DJI, RED, Zeiss, Atomos, and Cooke, and exceptional products were highlighted such as Sony Burano, RED Komodo-X, Cooke SP3, Astera LEO and Aputure Electro Storm.
Advanced Media had partnered with Zero Density, to transform storytelling with revolutionary extended reality tools for flat LED walls, cube and curved LED volumes. “Every event that we do is in service to the brands that we represent and the clients we cater to,” said Alaa Al Rantisi, co-founder of Advanced Media. “We take pride in our ability to bring them all together in our premises.”
Advanced Media regularly hosts training workshops and product launches across the UAE and in its regional offices in Riyadh and Cairo. The next CINE event would be in March 2026.
