All eyes were on Qatar last night for the opening of the second Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF).
Opening the festival is Rachid Bouchareb's action-thriller Outside the Law with a red carpet gala screening at Doha's 2,800-seater Katara amphitheatre. Set against the backdrop of the Algerian struggle for independence from France after the Second World War, Bouchareb said he was honoured the festival chose his film to open the celebrations.
DTFF will showcase 51 feature films from more than 35 countries over the next four days, bringing along the stars of the film world.
A stellar line-up of world-renowned directors, including Abbas Kiarostami, Rachid Bouchareb, François Ozon and Julian Schnabel will join actresses Salma Hayek, Yousra and Freida Pinto on the red carpet this week.
Highlights
Slumdog Millionaire star Pinto will walk the red carpet as an ambassador for her latest flick, Schnabel's Miral.
The main programme highlights include Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe starring Gemma Arterton, Aktan Abdykalykov's The Light Thief, Jeff and Michael Zimbalist's documentary, The Two Escobars, Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy, Randall Wallace's Secretariat starring John Malkovich, Jasmila Zbanic's On the Path and Robert Redford's The Conspirator.
This year 10 films will compete as part of the Festival's inaugural Arab Film Competition. Thirty-three features compete in World Panorama, nine in the Arab Short Film Competition and six in Special Screenings. A total of $400,000 (Dh1.4 million) in prize money is up for grabs.
But it's not all about money. The need to laugh is one of the main focuses with comedies taking the spotlight, including American-Egyptian director and comedian Ahmed Ahmed's Just Like Us and Josef Fares' Balls and Taika Waititi's Boy.
In addition, a panel discussion called Do you Speak Comedy with Robert De Niro — a founder of New York's Tribeca Film Festival — also makes up part of the programme.
DTFF 2010 has attracted many Arab stars this year as actors Carmen Lebbos, Razi Shawahdeh, Ashraf Farah, Yasmine Al Massri and Yousra amongst others and filmmakers Mahdi Ali Ali, Nadia Hamzeh, Hisham Bizro, Adolf Al Assal, Mahmoud Kaabour, Ebrahim Al Batout, Bahij Hojeij, Mohammad Abbazi, Sameh Zoabi, Siwar Zirkly, Rima Eisa, Hichem Ben Ammar, Hassan Ali Mahmoud, Burhan Qurbani, have all confirmed their attendance.
