Do you need a film permit in Dubai? DFTC permits, fees and timelines
This guide is written for the person who signs off the campaign and carries the risk, the brand or marketing owner, not the line producer who files the paperwork.
It covers what a film permit in Dubai is and that the Dubai Film and TV Commission (DFTC) issues it, when a permit is required, the rule that a foreign company cannot apply directly and must route through a UAE-licensed house, the official fees and processing timelines, and the sensitive-site and NOC layer. Read the permit stack the way a producer reads a call sheet, before the shoot rather than after a shutdown.
The one line to hold onto
A film permit in Dubai is a licence gate the DFTC controls, required for audio and visual media productions on government-operated and private locations. A foreign company cannot apply directly.
The film permit in Dubai is the licence gate the DFTC controls, not paperwork a client can DIY
Watch out
This article explains how the permit system works for a brand planning a shoot. It is not legal advice. Rules, fees and permit categories change, so confirm current requirements with the DFTC or qualified counsel before you film anything.
In Dubai, pointing a professional camera at a commercial shoot is a regulated act, not a creative decision.
For a brand owner, the risk is not the AED 520 application fee. It is a shoot that the marketing team owns being shut down because the permit was treated as a fixer's errand rather than a licence gate. When a campaign gets pulled on the day, the render quality of the film is irrelevant.
Grolez Films is a UAE-licensed production house.
What the DFTC is and what a permit actually covers
The Dubai Film and TV Commission authorises audio and visual media production permits for film, television and commercials filmed in Dubai, and its official portal is filmdubai.gov.ae. Its own terms and conditions put it plainly: the Commission is the sole authority authorised to permit all filming operations carried out in the Emirate of Dubai, including the special development areas and the free zones, including the Dubai International Financial Centre. Its separate location terms describe the mechanism behind the location fee, which is that the Commission issues the permit for a filming location only after the location owner's prior approval, and that the location fees themselves are managed by the location owner. So the commission is the permit authority and the transaction runs through its system, but the fee is the owner's.
The commission moved in 2024, and the resolution it still cites was repealed
What changed is who owns the function. Decree No. 67 of 2024, published by the Dubai Media Council in its own compilation of Dubai media laws and decrees, transferred from the Dubai Development Authority to the Council all the duties and powers vested in the DFTC under Executive Council Resolution No. 50 of 2014, together with the revenues the Commission generates from issuing permits and providing services. Article 6 of that decree repeals Executive Council Resolution No. 17 of 2012 and Executive Council Resolution No. 50 of 2014, and preserves the bylaws, regulations and resolutions issued under Resolution 50 of 2014 to the extent they do not contradict the decree, until superseding ones are issued. It was issued in Dubai on 10 December 2024.
Two things follow that a producer should know. First, the Commission's own terms page still names Resolution 50 of 2014 as the source of its authority, and its fees page still names the 2014 instrument as what defines government location fees, so those pages and the decree read as though they belong to different years. Second, the implementing rules the Commission actually runs on, expressly survive the repeal until replacements issue, and no replacement appears among the 27 pages the Commission's own sitemap publishes. Apply through filmdubai.gov.ae as before, and treat anything written before December 2024 about who the Commission reports to as out of date.
When a permit is required, and the stills-versus-video line
The Commission sets the scope on its own how to film in Dubai page. Filming permits are required for audio and visual media productions on government-operated and private locations. They are required across all media platforms, which the page lists as television, film, radio, online, mobile and print. And they are required for all content formats, which it lists as advertisement, short-form, long-form, documentary, radio programme and photography. Photography is one of the content formats the Commission names, and its FAQ puts photography alongside production and broadcasting among the activities eligible to apply for a filming permit. A professional stills shoot sits in the same framework as video and is not exempt for being photography.
The foreign-company rule: you cannot apply directly, and that is the point
Good to know
This is the reframe a foreign brand or agency needs. The local licensed house is not a convenience or a middleman markup.
The Commission states it twice on its own how to film in Dubai page. Any individual, corporation or entity that wishes to film in Dubai must appoint a UAE-licensed production company to obtain a filming permit. And DFTC will not directly issue filming permits to any international companies.
That is exactly why a foreign agency or a visiting crew has to route through a house like Grolez Films to shoot legally in Dubai. The alternative is flying in, assuming you can film, and discovering you cannot even lodge the application.
The fees, kept separate from what a shoot costs to make
The application fee and the public-location figure
The Commission publishes the schedule itself, on its permit fees page. There is a non-refundable processing fee of AED 520 per application, and a single application can include permit requests for multiple days and locations.
Government location fees sit in a published matrix, and they are location fees rather than a second processing charge. Scripted long-form, unscripted long-form, advertisements, corporate videos and footage, still shoots or video footage of the city, and news commissioned by a broadcaster from abroad are each AED 2,500. The permit duration varies with the category: up to 30 days for scripted and unscripted long-form, up to 14 days for city stills and footage and for foreign-commissioned news, up to 7 days for corporate content, and up to 3 days for advertisements. News and current events commissioned by a UAE licensed broadcaster is AED 0 for up to 30 days. And aerial filming is AED 0 for up to 7 days, for any production type, which is the single most useful line on the page for anyone pricing a drone shoot.
Private-location fees are published as a range rather than a rate. The Commission gives them as charged from 0 to a maximum of AED 25,000 per day, varying with production requirements, post-filming clean-up, security and additional services.
The Commission also publishes its fines, which is the other half of the arithmetic. Filming without permission is AED 25,000. Filming without location permission is AED 15,000. Filming for activities other than those stated in the permit is AED 25,000. And a further AED 20,000 category covers a production house member not being present on set, damage to property, littering, blocking pathways or roads without permission, building sets or structures without permission, and aerial filming without permission from the concerned parties.
Good to know
Keep the government figures visibly separate from any production cost, so a permit fee is never read as the price of the shoot. What a film costs to make is a different number in a different conversation.
The timelines
Watch out
The Commission states the working week on its own script approval page, and it is Monday to Friday, with weekends and public holidays not counted as business days.
The Commission publishes its own service times. Its FAQ gives one working day to approve a filming permit, subject to the location owners' approval, and two working days to register on the portal.
Script approval is the long pole. The Commission's script approval page states that for all movie and television filming in any government or private location, script approval must be received before applying for a filming permit, and that approval takes up to 25 business days. Its FAQ separately gives format-by-format times: 20 to 25 working days for TV series, 10 to 15 for feature films, and 10 to 20 for documentaries. Script approval is free of charge. Arabic productions submit the full script in Arabic and everything else in English, and the entire script is submitted even where only a sequence is filmed in Dubai.
Lead time, planned by the production partner, is what protects the shoot date. Booking talent, a location and a crew for a date the permit cannot clear in time is the avoidable version of a shutdown.
The sensitive-site layer
A No Objection Certificate (NOC) is required from location owners before filming in any private location, per the DFTC. The DFTC permit opens the system, the NOC opens the specific door.
DIFC's own photoshoot request page sets out the sequence. All photography or videography inside the centre requires prior approval in order to obtain the necessary security permits. For commercial requests where production is involved, such as advertisements or films, DIFC asks you to apply through the Dubai Film and TV Commission portal first, then submit the request on its own site once the DFTC permit is in hand. It asks for a minimum of one working day to respond, and the form asks outright whether you have the DFTC permit. So the DFTC permit comes first and the DIFC approval is a security permission on top, which matches the Commission's own terms claiming the free zones including DIFC.
Road approvals
The road closure permit, and what RTA publishes
Service 341, Apply for a Road Closure Permit for a Public Event, allows you to hold an event in the Right-of-Way, in coordination with the Events Security Committee for the Emirate of Dubai events, and RTA states that you cannot apply to close a road for any other purpose. Its service time is 7 working days, which RTA notes may run longer where other approvals are required or where the requirements are not met. The fee is AED 220, itemised as AED 200 for the permit and AED 20 for Knowledge and Innovation, and a renewal costs the same as the issuance.
The metro is a different matter. Of the 95 service records RTA publishes in its own services catalogue, the road closure permit above is the only one that mentions filming at all. None of those 95 records sets out a route for filming aboard the metro or the tram. That is a statement about what the authority publishes in its own catalogue, not a permission and not a requirement. If your concept puts a camera inside a station or a carriage, put the question to RTA in writing and keep the answer, because there is no service record to plan against.
What this means for planning the shoot, and who you hire
Watch out
Those production ranges are indicative and separate from the DFTC and location fees cited earlier. The production tiers are what a shoot costs to make. Keep them apart in every budget conversation, so a permit fee is never read as a production quote.
Plan backward from the permit, not forward from the shoot date
The rules turn into a plan when they are read in sequence. Confirm the location and its owner. Identify the NOC layer for that site. Get that owner's approval in writing, because the Commission's own one working day is subject to it. Lodge the DFTC application. Because the Commission counts business days Monday to Friday and lead time compounds across authorities, a production partner planning backward from the shoot date protects both the date and the compliance position.
Creative and pre-production can move while the permit and NOCs clear, so a house that reads the permit stack first protects the shoot date instead of racing it.
Who you hire is part of the compliance answer
The permit stack is not separate from the production decision.
On cost, indicative ranges only. A solo videographer sits around AED 3,500, work Grolez Films does not take. A DOP and small crew runs roughly AED 25,000 to 45,000. A full production starts from AED 100,000 and moves into the several hundred thousands, planned around the permit and NOC stack rather than dropped on top of it.
What to hold onto, in one pass
A film permit in Dubai is issued by the DFTC. A foreign company or a visiting crew cannot apply directly and must route through a UAE-licensed production house. The application fee is AED 520 per application, non-refundable, and the Commission publishes a government location fee of AED 2,500 for most commercial categories and AED 0 for aerial filming. Private locations run from 0 to a maximum of AED 25,000 a day. The Commission publishes one working day to approve a permit, subject to the location owner, and up to 25 business days for script approval.
This remains an operator's briefing, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the DFTC or qualified counsel before you film.
Grolez Films: the permit stack
Before we quote a job, we work out who has to give permission and who has to apply for it.
Luis Grolez, the founder, pitches this personally, founder to founder.
See the work, or start a conversation.
Sources and methodology
Read from primary text on 24 September 2026: the Dubai Film and TV Commission's own pages, for the permit scope, the applicant rule, the private-location NOC, every fee, fine and timeline, the script approval rules, and the permit and location terms, with the Commission's 27-page sitemap walked end to end; Decree No. 67 of 2024, in the Dubai Media Council's published compilation, for the transfer and the repeal; the Roads and Transport Authority's service record for the road closure permit and its catalogue of 95 service records; and the DIFC photoshoot request page. Nothing here rests on a production company, agency or news account. Left open: how a permit inside a Dubai Development Authority zone sits beside the Commission's claim to every free zone, since Decree No. 66 of 2024, in the same compilation, keeps that Authority's own permit powers for media production in its zones; whether script approval applies to commercials, which the Commission's pages do not address; what a private location owner will charge within the published ceiling; and what the civil aviation authorities require of a drone pilot and aircraft, since their pages could not be read. No claim is made that Grolez Films appears on the Commission's published list of production companies. The production ranges describing our own work are approximations from our own quoting, confirmed internally in August 2026, not published rates. This article is informational and is not legal advice. Confirm your position with the relevant authority or with counsel before relying on it.
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, how to film in Dubai, for the permit scope, the platforms and formats, the applicant rule and the private-location NOC: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, permit fees, for the processing fee, the government and private location fees and the fines: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, FAQ, for photography as an eligible activity, the one working day, the two-day registration and the format-by-format script times: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, applying for script approval, for the scope, the 25 business days, the Monday to Friday week and the script submission rules: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, filming permit terms and conditions, for the sole-authority clause and the resolution it cites: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, location terms, for the owner's prior approval and the owner's management of location fees: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Film and TV Commission, sitemap, for the 27 published pages: filmdubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Media Council, compilation of Dubai media laws and decrees, for Decree No. 67 of 2024 and Decree No. 66 of 2024: dubaimediacouncil.ae
- Roads and Transport Authority, road closure permit for a public event, for the scope, the service time and the fee: rta.ae
- Roads and Transport Authority, services catalogue, for the 95 service records searched: rta.ae
- DIFC, photoshoot request, for the DFTC-first sequence and the response time: difc.com