The big news: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is opening the eighth edition of the Dubai International Film Festival, Tom Cruise will walk the red carpet tonight and Dubai is one of the main stars of the film.
The bigger news: The festival has upped its glamour quotient, confirming A-list film and industry talent from America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arab world, with 46 world premieres, 25 international premieres and 78 Middle East premieres, 89 of which will vie for prestigious Muhr Awards with total prize money of more than $600,000 (Dh2.2 million).
Cruise and team may be stealing the limelight for now but this year's Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) has a lot more to offer. For example, Diff will present Lifetime Achievement Awards to veteran Egyptian actor and crossover star Gamil Rateb, Oscar and Grammy-winning Indian music composer A. R. Rahman and renowned auteur Werner Herzog, and all of whom will walk red carpets.
Galas
Nightly red carpet gala screenings will welcome major talent beginning with the gala screening of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol opening the festival tonight. Bollywood romcom Ladies vs Ricky Bahl will see Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma tomorrow, while other galas include George Clooney flick The Descendants, Disney family favourite The Muppets, German comedy-drama Three Quarter Moon, Italian immigrant film Terraferma, Egyptian romance A Whole One and British drama My Week With Marilyn. Hollywood heavyweight Owen Wilson will host an In Conversation With chat on Saturday at 4pm.
For the celebrity spotters among you, guests confirmed include the MI4 team (Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Anil Kapoor, Léa Seydoux, director Brad Bird and producer Bryan Burk), Sideways director Alexander Payne and actress Shailene Woodley, The Muppets director James Bobin, directors Peter Weir and Volker Schlondorff, Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, producer Ritesh Sidhwani and Rahul Bose.
Stars from the GCC who will attend Diff include Fakhria Khamis and Buthaina Al Raisi from Oman, Dawood Hussain, Ebrahim Al Harbi, Huda Hussain and Mahmoud Bushehri from Kuwait, Zahra Arafat from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia's Abdul Mohsen M. Al Nemer.
From the Arab world look out for Amr Waked, Ezzat Abu Ouf, Lebleba, and Yousra from Egypt, Lebanon's Ahmad Al Zein and Yousuf Al Khal, Esmail Al Ajaili and Iman Al Rabti from Libya, Moroccan Mohammad Miftah, Mozna Al Atrash from Syria and Dorra Shihawi and Ahlam Bou Affoura from Tunisia.
In the "here's hoping" category — seeing as some stars do confirm late and show up as a surprise — names being batted around by the 1,100 industry insiders accredited for the festival include Scarlett Johansson, George Clooney and Peter Gabriel for his film New Blood - Live in London 3D, part of the festival's Rhythm & Reels section.
Don't miss it!
The Diff box office is now open at dubaifilmfest.com. The festival galas are at Madinat Jumeirah until December 14. Public film screenings are at the First Group Theatre at Madinat and at Vox cinemas at Mall of the Emirates. Free screenings of the Rhythm and Reels segment on the beach at JBR nightly. There will also be a public screening of the opening night red carpet on the big screen at JBR tonight.
