The Arabian Nights Animation collection is a World Premiere curated by Mohamed Ghazala. Films from Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Egypt, UAE, Tunisia and Algeria have been collated by Mohamed Ghazala, Director of ASIFA (the International Animated Film Association) Egypt, and animation lecturer at the Fine Arts Faculty of Minia University.

Animation is nothing new to Arab filmmakers. When Walt Disney was beginning work on Snow White and Seven Dwarfs in the 1930s, a small group was also at work in Egypt, creating a film for the Ministry of Defence. The film, National Defense (1939), deployed animation in the propaganda war against the Nazi invasion of Egypt in World War II.

Today a new generation of Arab animators is at work in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco and Middle East.Their work draws on a rich tradition of folklore, from the ArabianNights to the legends of Sinbad, Aladdin, Ali Baba and Scheherazade, as well as religious themes. Some are influenced by Western animation and Japanese anime styles, but many express a desire to create a new animation movement, to find a way for Arabs to tell the world their own stories with their own voice.

Curator of Arabian Nights Animation Collection