The UAE's federal filming authority who issues, what it costs, and the two clocks
Under the federal media law there is a layer above every emirate, and most producers meet it twice: once when the emirate they are shooting in has no film authority of its own, and once when a document in the pile names a body that no longer exists under that name. Both are the same layer, and this is the Journal's reference page for it. Which emirate sends you here is answered separately, in the Journal's article on filming permits in the northern emirates.
The one line to hold onto
The federal media regulator is the National Media Authority. It replaced the UAE Media Council on 1 January 2026 under Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025, and the Council's own resolutions and regulations stay in force until superseded, so a form that still names the Media Council is not void for that reason. Read the two clocks before the fee, because the filing deadline and the processing time measure different things.
The Council became the Authority, and the older paperwork still stands
Watch out
A form, permit condition or guidance document that names the UAE Media Council is not out of date for that reason. The competences moved to the Authority and the Council's instruments remain in force. Check the effective date, not the name on it.
Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025 establishes the National Media Authority and, at Article 13(1), puts it in the Council's place: the Authority replaces the UAE Media Council in exercising the competences assigned to the Council under Federal Decree by Law No. 55 of 2023 and under other legislation. Article 16(1) repeals Federal Decree by Law No. 57 of 2022, which established the Council. Article 17 puts the decree in force as of 1 January 2026. It was issued on 30 September 2025 and published in Official Gazette 808 the same day.
The commercially useful provision is Article 16(3), which keeps the Council's resolutions and regulations in force until superseding ones issue. Nothing was voided by the change of name, and the older name is still in current use. The Council's former domain answers, returning HTTP 301 from uaemc.gov.ae to the Authority's services index, and the federal Executive Regulation governing filming still names the Council, which the instruments define as the UAE Media Council, in its own script clause, because it has not been reissued.
What the federal layer issues, and what it charges
Federal Decree by Law No. 55 of 2023 lists photography as a media activity at Article 8, and Article 13 gives the Competent Authority the permits for practising land, aerial or marine photography activities, including approval of texts and content.
The Authority's e-service catalogue files its filming services under a category heading, Issuance of Filming License, which is not itself a service. Four services sit inside it: a Ground filming permit within the country, an Aerial Photography Permit within the UAE, a Marine photography permit within the UAE, and a Permit for entry of filming equipment accompanying foreign media crews. The first three each publish AED 500 per day and a service delivery time of five working days, and each was opened individually rather than assumed to match.
Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2025 carries the same three. In Table (2), the schedule for services provided by the Competent Authority, items 28, 29 and 30 are the ground, aerial and maritime filming permits within the country, each at 500 dirhams for one day. Item 47 is the equipment entry permit above, also at 500, which the Authority's own record prices at AED 500 with a twenty-minute delivery time.
The arithmetic matters more than the figure. It is per day and per permit, so a three-day shoot needing ground and aerial cover is six permit days rather than three, and Article 3 provides that part of a day counts as a full day, so six half-days is six days.
Article 2(2) disapplies these schedules to media services provided in the free zones, sending them to Cabinet Resolution No. 39 of 2016 instead. That instrument was not retrieved here, so free-zone pricing is left open.
Watch out
Table (1) of the same Resolution, the Council's own schedule, also has items numbered 28, 29 and 30, also at 500. They are the cinema age classification, trailer screening and film poster permits. Read the schedule heading before the item number.
Fifteen working days and five working days are not the same clock
Good to know
AED 500 per day is a permit fee, not a production cost. It is small against a campaign budget and almost never decides a schedule. The lead times decide it.
Two published federal numbers get read as one, and the mistake costs weeks. Article 21(1) of Cabinet Resolution No. 68 of 2024 requires the application to be submitted through the approved electronic means, using the designated form with all required documents and data, before fifteen working days before the date specified for the commencement of filming. The turnaround is five working days, published on each of the three service records as the service delivery time.
Neither is an end-to-end lead time. The service records instruct the applicant to complete procedures with the concerned authorities after obtaining the permit, and Article 7 of the parent decree-law says the same in general terms: the permit does not substitute for the necessary approvals from those authorities. A road, a beach, a venue, a port and a piece of airspace each have their own owner and their own clock.
What the application asks, and the question it leaves open
Article 21 requires the application to specify the purpose of filming, from a published list of film, TV report, programme, series, advertisement, video clip or any other purpose, and to give the start and end dates and the locations to be filmed in precise detail. Build the location list wider than the shot list before it goes in. The licensee must also stay away from no-shoot areas, described as places of interest subject to the prohibition of photography, and no list of them was found published on the Authority's own service records.
The open question is content approval, and it is open in both directions. Article 21(6) requires an attached script approval permit issued by the UAE Media Council for movies and plays, or by the competent authority for TV series. That is the whole of what the clause says about scripts. Advertisement and video clip appear three clauses earlier, at 21(3), as declarable purposes of filming, and not in the script requirement at all. Against that, Article 13 of the parent decree-law describes the photography permit as itself including approval of texts and content. Neither reading becomes an assurance here.
Who may hold the permit is unanswered too. Neither the service records nor Article 21 states an eligibility rule, so nothing published says whether the applicant must be a UAE-licensed company, a company licensed in a particular emirate, or anyone at all. One clause bears on it without settling it. Article 21(5) requires an authorisation letter or an official letter from the executing or supervising entity where there is one, and expressly contemplates that entity being inside the State or outside it. That is the clause to put to the Authority in writing. Do not read the Dubai position across, because it comes from a different regime.
Common questions
Is a form or permit naming the UAE Media Council still valid?
The change of name does not void it. Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025 puts the Authority in the Council's place from 1 January 2026, and Article 16(3) keeps the Council's resolutions and regulations in force until superseding ones issue. The federal Executive Regulation on filming still names the Council in its own clause. Check the effective date, not the body named on it.
What does a federal filming permit cost?
Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2025 prices the ground, aerial and maritime filming permits at 500 dirhams each for one day, and the Authority's service records publish AED 500 per day for the same three. A further 500 covers the equipment entry permit for a visiting crew. Free-zone pricing sits under a different instrument and is not established here.
How far ahead do I have to apply?
Fifteen working days before filming starts, under Article 21(1) of the Executive Regulation. That is a filing deadline, not a processing time. The processing time is published separately, as five working days on each service record. Neither is end to end, because location, road, venue and airspace approvals sit outside the permit.
Does a brand film or an advertisement need script approval?
Not established, and this article does not pretend otherwise. The Executive Regulation requires an attached script approval permit for movies and plays, or for TV series, and does not name advertisements or video clips, though it names both as declarable purposes of filming. Against that, the parent decree-law describes the permit as including approval of texts and content.
Does the federal permit cover the location as well?
No. The service records tell the applicant to complete procedures with the concerned authorities after obtaining the permit, and Article 7 of the decree-law states that it does not substitute for their approvals. A filming permit is a media permit. It says nothing about a road closure, a beach, a private venue, a port or airspace.
What to hold onto, in one pass
The federal regulator is the National Media Authority, in the UAE Media Council's place since 1 January 2026 under Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025, with the Council's instruments in force until superseded, so older paperwork naming the Council is not void. Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2025 prices the ground, aerial and maritime filming permits at 500 dirhams each for one day in Table (2), not Table (1), and part of a day counts as a full day, so the fee multiplies across permits and days. Two clocks run, fifteen working days to file and five to issue, and neither is end to end. Unresolved: whether an advertisement needs script approval, whether any eligibility rule applies to the applicant, where the no-shoot areas are, and how a free-zone shoot is priced.
Grolez Films: the deadline is the thing to plan around
The fee on this route is not what moves a production schedule. The filing deadline is. The application has to be in before fifteen working days ahead of the first shoot day, so on a late sign-off the federal route is gone unless the paperwork started alongside the treatment.
Two habits make that survivable. Fix the location list before the application goes in, because the form asks for locations in precise detail and the shot list always grows after the recce. And treat the permit as one door of several, because the Authority's own terms send the applicant to the concerned authorities afterwards for everything it does not cover.
Luis Grolez, the founder, pitches this personally, founder to founder.
See the work. Then get in touch about a specific location and a specific quarter.
Sources and methodology
Everything factual here is read from primary text on 17 and 18 August 2026: Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025, as an eleven-page official English PDF from the legislation portal's download route, read on 17 August, for Articles 13(1), 16(1), 16(3) and 17; Federal Decree by Law No. 55 of 2023 for Articles 7, 8 and 13; Cabinet Resolution No. 68 of 2024 for Article 21; and Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2025, whose two fee schedules were read end to end because both carry items numbered 28, 29 and 30 at 500 dirhams and only the Competent Authority schedule holds the filming permits. The Authority's e-service catalogue and all four service records in its Issuance of Filming License category were opened individually, and the redirect from the Council's former domain was observed on the response headers on 18 August 2026. One retrieval lesson is worth passing on, because it produced two errors in an earlier version: that catalogue serves English only to a browser-style request, and its index shows just three services per category behind a Load more control, which is how the equipment entry permit reads as missing from the English catalogue when it is published there in full. Nothing rests on a production company, agency, law-firm or news account. Four things are left open in both directions rather than resolved: whether an advertisement or brand film requires script approval on this route, whether any eligibility rule applies to the applicant, where the no-shoot areas are, and whether a free-zone shoot is priced by the 2025 Resolution or by Cabinet Resolution No. 39 of 2016, which was not retrieved. Two retrieval failures are recorded as failures rather than findings. The Abu Dhabi Film Commission's pages were attempted on the naming point on 18 August 2026 and returned HTTP 403 to plain, browser-header and Googlebot requests, so nothing is claimed here about how that Commission's current material names the regulator. And the UAE legislation portal blocked every request from this environment on 18 August 2026, at the host rather than the path and on all three request styles, so Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025 could not be re-opened that day and nothing here quotes it verbatim. No claim is made that Grolez Films has obtained any permit named here or has operating experience with the Authority. This article is informational and is not legal advice. Confirm your position with the Authority or with counsel before relying on it. Prepared 18 August 2026.
- Federal Decree by Law No. 11 of 2025, for the replacement of the Council, the repeal of Decree by Law No. 57 of 2022, the survival of the Council's instruments and the 1 January 2026 effective date: uaelegislation.gov.ae
- Federal Decree by Law No. 55 of 2023, for photography as a media activity, the Article 13 photography permit and the Article 7 rule that a permit is not clearance: cma.gov.ae
- Cabinet Resolution No. 68 of 2024, the Executive Regulation, for Article 21: the filing deadline, the purposes list, the precise-locations obligation, the authorisation letter at 21(5) and the script approval attachment: uaelegislation.gov.ae
- National Media Authority, legislation library, which serves that Executive Regulation as the instrument in force with nothing superseding it: nma.gov.ae
- Cabinet Resolution No. 41 of 2025 on media services fees, for Table (2) items 28 to 30 and item 47, Article 3 and Article 2(2): cma.gov.ae
- National Media Authority, e-services catalogue, for Issuance of Filming License as a category heading and the four services inside it, including the equipment entry permit at AED 500 and twenty minutes: nma.gov.ae
- National Media Authority, ground filming permit within the country, for the fee, the delivery time and the terms: nma.gov.ae
- National Media Authority, aerial and marine photography permits, opened individually, same fee and delivery time: nma.gov.ae
- The Council's former domain, for the HTTP 301 to the Authority's services index: uaemc.gov.ae