Amin Abbas

The 10^th edition of the Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC) was held from 4 – 6 March 2022 for the first time in Abu Dhabi and managed to attract more than 48 thousand visitors.

The event hosted a big line-up of celebrities such as: Michael Rooker (Yondu Udonta from Guardians of the Galaxy), Charles Martinet (voice of Mario from Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise), Barry Keoghan (George Mills in Dunkirk, Druig in Marvel’s Eternals and Joker in The Batman), Ming-Na Wen (Fa Mulan in Disney’s animated feature Mulan), among others. 

Various international artists attended like Hirokatsu Kihara, the former head of the production desk at Studio Ghibli, and many more.

MEFCC 2022 featured a variety of activities such as a cosplay competition, a Counter-Strike gaming tournament, workshops that covered a diverse range of topics, as well as an artist area that featured local creators and artists with their art commissions and merchandise.

Ayman Akaily, Lead Content Curator at Middle East Film and Comic Con, shared how: “This is our first event in Abu Dhabi after we moved it from Dubai and it was a spectacular success as the total number of visitors exceeded our expectations (16,000 expected visitors) of three days has reached more than 48,000 visitors and we are very happy about it as the attendance for Abu Dhabi’s MEFCC went beyond our expectations in a way that we were surprised that the sold tickets were from people who came not only from within UAE, but also from GCC countries as well from Africa, Europe and US.”

Akaily pointed out how there have been many successes this year including the impressive celebrity line-up. 

“Also, we had a variety of things at this year’s edition of MEFCC such as amazing workshops” for anime, manga, comics as well as a cosplay competition and activities, he added.

About their upcoming plans for next year’s edition of MEFCC, Akaily shared how they are planning to do their next event in Abu Dhabi after this year’s promising turnout. 

A representative of Z Games, one of the exhibitors at MEFCC 2022 said: “We were very happy to be part of MEFCC this year as the response from our fans who came to our booth was very amazing where we featured special discounts on many titles for both PlayStation and Xbox games.”

Mohammed Hefny, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Ecommerce Director at Capeless who was also one of exhibitors at MEFCC 2022 expressed enthusiasm at participating at MEFCC.