Entertainment | Film & Cinema
Ready to roll
The red carpet has been laid, stars are arriving in the city and the films are ready to be screened with the fourth Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) beginning today. The festival, as we all know by now, runs until Sunday, December 16.
- By Kelly Crane, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:23 December 9, 2007
- Dita von Teese will be attending the amfAR gala.
- Image Credit: Supplied photo
The red carpet has been laid, stars are arriving in the city and the films are ready to be screened with the fourth Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) beginning today. The festival, as we all know by now, runs until Sunday, December 16.
George Clooney is preparing to walk the red carpet tonight before Sharon Stone, Danny Glover and many other celebrities from around the world and across the region make their appearances later in the week.
Western
From prize-winning titles to star-laden American movies, this section features some of the best films being released in the Western world.
Leading the programme as the Gala selection is The Darjeeling Limited, the latest wryly comic offering from cult director Wes Anderson.
The segment's American films contain a number of pleasures, especially for Western fans: Brad Pitt won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his title role in an epic re-visioning of the Jesse James myth, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but Casey Affleck is also astonishing as Ford (Affleck also features in his brother Ben Affleck's distinctive directorial debut, the detective thriller Gone Baby Gone).
Also neo-Western in mood is the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, involving a stash of cash and a pursuit across West Texas.
Two potential Oscar-contending performances are also to be found by Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry in two very different domestic dramas. Brosnan shines with dry wit and duplicity as he pursues his best friend's new love in Married Life and Berry is superlative alongside Benicio Del Toro in Things We Lost in the Fire, in which she plays a widow who forms a strange bond with her husband's drug addict friend.
Completing the strong US representation are veteran indies Gus Van Sant with his lyrical skate-boarding drama Paranoid Park. Across the Universe, starring Jim Sturgess, will be screened at Dubai Media City as part of Rhythm and Reels.
Arabic
True to its mandate to promote and nurture Arabic cinema, DIFF will welcome Arab stars from all over the Middle East and beyond.
The glittering Gala night of the Arabian Nights programming section will see Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch (Ali Zaoua, 2000; Mektoub, 1997) present at the World Premiere of Whatever Lola Wants.
Veteran director Mohammad Khan, whose Fi Shaket Masr Al Gedeeda (In the Heliopolis Flat) has been chosen to represent Egypt at the 2008 Academy Awards, will also attend with the film's young stars Khalid Abol Naga and Ghada Adel.
Continuing the trend of Egyptian film royalty, the festival will bestow the veteran Youssef Chahine with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to cinema.
From North Africa, Nouri Bouzid, who received the prestigious Ibn Khaldun award this year, will bring his award-winning Akhir Film (Making Of).
The Lebanese presence is also strong at DIFF. Borhane Alaouié, who has not worked in fiction narrative since the 1990s, will accompany his comeback film Khalass, a rich exploration of four characters struggling with post-civil war life in Beirut. Prolific Palestinian documentarian Mai Masri brings another look at the effects of conflict on Lebanese society.
The Muhr Awards
The Arab Film Competition was launched at DIFF 2006 with the aim of giving recognition to Arab filmmakers both regionally and internationally.
The competition gives over $300,000 (Dh1.1 million) in cash prizes to the recipients of the Muhr Award, carefully selected by an international jury.
This year, it includes seven World Premieres in its three competition categories of Features, Documentaries and Shorts.
The segment of the Muhr Awards that honours Emirati filmmakers has also been broadened to include the categories of Best Emirati Filmmaker, Best Emirati Female Filmmaker and Best Emirati Talent.
All carry cash prizes of Dh20,000.
Films were submitted from all over the Arab world and will be judged by prominent filmmakers and critics.
A number of prominent Arab filmmakers are among the nominees: Egyptian director Mohammad Khan; Abdul Latif Abdul Hamid, one of Syria's best directors, comes back with Kahrej Altaghtya (Out of Coverage) and Moroccan director Ahmad Al Maanouni returns after years of absence with Al Koloub Al Mouhtariqua (Burned Hearts).
Emirati Voices
The Emirati Voices programme is an important component of DIFF and features out-of-competition Arab cinema by UAE filmmakers.
The films are selected from the growing talent pool of emerging young Emirati filmmakers. The programme aims to serve as a platform for promising new Emirati filmmakers to share their work with the international film community attending DIFF.
Well-known Emirati actors Ibrahim Salem, Habib Ghuloom, Saeed Obaid and Ashjan (Umm Alawi from the Freej series) will accompany the film Tenbak, which deals with racism in Emirati society in the story of two lifelong friends. The film is directed by Abdullah Hassan Ahmad.
Indian powerhouses
Indian artists will descend on the city with the best films of the year from the Subcontinent.
Powerhouse director Mira Nair's ensemble film Aids Jaago will bring a veritable swarm of Indian cinematic talent to the DIFF Gala red carpet.
Stars Shiney Ahuja, Raima Sen, Sameera Reddy and Irrfan Khan will all make an appearance.
Internationally acclaimed director and cinematographer Santosh Sivan brings both Parambha, one of the Aids Jaago shorts, and Before the Rains, set in India in the 1930s against the backdrop of the growing nationalist movement.
Naseeruddin Shah will bring the world premiere of his latest starrer, Shoot on Sight, and co-star Laila Rouass will appear by Shah's side to promote the film.
From Kerala, master director Adoor Gopalakrishnan and his leading actress, South Indian star Padma Priya, will be on hand for the screening of Four Women, about the issue of matrimony in the lives of four women from different social classes.
The revised international director's cut of Taj Mahal will bring Kabir Bedi and ex-supermodel Pooja Batra. But sadly, veteran star Mithun Chakraborty will not be able to attend the screening of Story of the Red Hills.
Stars in town
Lifetime Achievement Awards will honour Danny Glover, Youssef Chahine and Im Kwon-taek for their outstanding work in cinema.
Other stars expected at DIFF include:
George Clooney
Sharon Stone
Gloria Estefan
Shiney Ahuja
Raima Sen
Sameera Reddy
Irrfan Khan
Paulo Coelho
The amFAR gala
DIFF will host a fundraiser for amfAR, one of the world's leading non-profit organisations dedicated to the support of Aids research, HIV prevention, treatment education and public policy advocacy.
The Dubai event will create its own variant of the yearly, star-studded Cannes benefit, with the leadership of amfAR's Chairman of the Board, Kenneth Cole, and amfAR's Chairman of the Campaign for Aids Research, Sharon Stone.
Stone and Cole will walk the red carpet at a gala dinner in Bab Al Shams before sitting down for a star-studded VIP auction to raise money for the charity.
The glamorous Dita von Teese is also expected to attend.
A collection of rare and unusual luxury items that will be auctioned at the glamorous event, held under the patronage of Princess Haya Bint Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Stone will be assisted by event chairs Michelle Yeoh, Abdul Majid Al Fahim, and Satjiv S. Chahil. Individual seats for the event start at $2,000 (Dh7,340) and can be purchased via telephone on 04-3676716.
How to get tickets
Box offices are located at Madinat Jumeirah, the CNN building at Dubai Media City, Cinestar at Mall of the Emirates, and the Grand Cineplex at Wafi. Box offices are open from 10am to 10pm, with the exception of the CNN Building, which will open from 10am to 6pm.
Tickets can also be purchased online through the festival's website at www.dubaifilmfest.
com; the website is a valuable source of information for all things DIFF, including synopses of all the festival's offerings, schedules, venue information and festival news.
The DIFF phone sales line can be reached on 04-3676701, and is open from 10am to 6pm. DIFF Ticket prices are: Dh25 for adults, Dh20 for students and children.
For Gala screenings, tickets are Dh80 for adults. Children are welcome to the Gala evening of the Cinema for Children programming segment, where children's tickets will be Dh50. All other Galas are open only to those over age 16.
Screen on the Green, the outdoor screening series, will be free to all. Rhythm and Reels tickets cost Dh175 for a single evening and Dh450 for three evenings.
If a screening is sold out, there is still the option of the Stand By queue, where patrons can buy tickets for any seats left unfilled 15 minutes prior to show time.
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