That’s a wrap, folks. The curtains came down on the 11th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) on Wednesday night with the screening of the star-studded Disney flick, Into the Woods, at an exclusive closing ceremony.
Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine and Emily Blunt shone in the film, which joined elements of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel to create a fantastical, larger-than-life tale. The screening brought to an end eight jam-packed days of film screenings, panel discussions, press junkets and red carpets, which welcomed the talented likes of Lee Daniels, Olga Kurylenko, Nour Al Sharif, Paul Bettany and Kelsey Grammer.
At the ceremony, 21-year-old Mais Al Amouri was awarded the Dubai Young Journalist Award by Mohammed Almezel, Managing Editor of Gulf News. The award landed her an internship at tabloid!. The American University of Sharjah (AUS) student outshone seven other participants for the title, standing out for her outstanding writing and initiative throughout the festival.
“I’m really proud of what I have achieved at these four years at university. I’m really happy that I made my university and all my colleagues and all my professors happy, as well. It’s really a memorable moment,” she told tabloid! the morning after her big win. She had just visited her department at AUS, where her professors had already hung a clipping of her photo from Gulf News.
“I didn’t expect to have the access I had at this festival. I thought that I’m still a young journalist who’s just going to attend everything behind the scenes — that I won’t have all this access that all the other journalists had. But they gave me all the access I needed,” she added.
Abdul Hamid Juma, chairman of Diff, applauded the efforts of the competing students.
“Through reporting from Diff, these young journalists have had first-hand experience of covering the red carpet, have come to know the necessity of meeting tight deadlines, have had the chance to conduct on-the-spot, last-minute interviews and have truly experienced a real-life learning curve,” he said in a press release.
