As part of its successful tour in more than 70 film festival around the world, Algerian director Boubaker Boukhari's Emirati animation film Karouma will take part in the 1st edition of the Animate Palestine Festival (Animate. Ps) (9-13 April). Within the festival, animated films will be screened in West Bank and Gaza, in addition to several programmes, one of which is dedicated for children and family.

The film follows Karouma, the unique gifted boy who is striving to break through and to leave his parentss nest to pursue his dreams and live his life in its full potential.

The Animate.ps aims at discussing the current situation of the animation industry and ways of developing it. The festival is introducing the Palestinian community to the animation sector to develop the capabilities of the young talents to find jobs in this field and to promote the animation industry to levels and quality commensurate with the requirements of the regional and international markets.

Most recently, Karouma has been an official selection at five international film festivals; the Montana International Children's Film Festival in USA, the Cambodia International Film Festival, the Anim!Arte - International Student Animation Festival of Brazil, and the Safe Community International Short Film Festival in Iran.

In 2016, the animated film toured more than 70 of the world's film festivals competing in the official competition of 9 festivals across 7 countries around the world. Karouma has been selected at the Animation Chico in Chico, California, USA, El Meu Primer Festival in Spain, Hsin-Yi Children Animation Award in Taiwan, Arab Film Festival Zurich in Switzerland, Wicked Film Festival in Australia, Video Babel in Peru, XII Festival de Cine Infantil de Ciudad Guayana in Venezuela, Seville Animation Festival (Animalada) in Spain, Grand OFF World Independent Film Awards in Warsaw, Poland, and Euroshorts in Poland.

Karouma received several awards at prestigious international festivals including; the Best Animation Film Award at the New York International Short Film Festival, the Pennine Film Festival in the UK; the Comme Il Faut International Film Festival; the 4th Kraljevski Film Festival in Serbia; and the FILMMATIC Filmmaker Awards in USA; in addition to the Silver Remi Award at the 49th Annual International Independent Film Festival (Worldfest-Houston); an Animation Honorable Mention at the FARCUME International Festival of Short Film Faro in Portugal; and the Best International Expat Short award at the Korea International Expat Film Festival.

Karouma also participated in the 20th Arab Film Festival in USA and contended for the Best Animated Film award at the Southampton International Film Festival in the UK (19-23 October), the Tunisian Festival of Animated Film-Ta7rik, and the Sharjah International Children's Film Festival (SICFF).

Algerian director Boubaker Boukhari has studied Fine Arts in Algeria and then received training on Animation. Boukhari worked in a joint venture between the EU and the Maghreb to produce cartoon animation, and then he moved to Tunisia to work in the field of Advertising and Audiovisual Production. His showreel includes many animated feature films, series, music videos and animated shorts. He helped in the curation of some of cultural festivals and events in collaboration with many associations. Furthermore, Boukhari has also worked as a teacher of Visual Effects, and also participated in training courses and workshops on Cartoon Animation.