Although political events in the Arab world, especially the Arab Spring, have served as inspiration for numerous locally-produced films, few of them make it to regional film festivals.

In November, the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) excluded director Tamer El Said's film "In the Last Days of the City" for murky reasons, and the following month, the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) pulled out of a screening of Egyptian director Ahmed Roshdy's animated film "The Unknown Sweet Potato Seller," even excluding it from the Muhr short film competition.

The DIFF's statement on the film's removal read: “The Dubai International Film Festival and the cast and crew of 'The Unknown Sweet Potato Seller' … regret to inform you that they have been unable to screen the film due to unforeseen circumstances.” The festival did not reveal what circumstances that prompted the film's removal from the festival were.

Roshdy posted on Facebook that the crew and cast were informed of the cancellation only 24 hours before the screening was to take place. He wrote that the film had been approved in November for screening and that it was not excluded for any flaws in its submission to the DIFF.