With the world's film industry zooming in on the emirate later this year, organisers of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) have upped the stakes in celebration of the very best of Arab cinema.

The annual event, now in its third year, will award around Dh1.2 million in prize money to recognise Arab and UAE filmmakers and support the film industry in the region.

The new Muhr Awards for Excellence in Arab Cinema were unveiled at a press conference at the Dubai Press Club yesterday.

Exciting

Speaking at the event, Abdulhamid Al Juma, deputy director general of TECOM (Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone Authority), described it as an "exciting new development" and said: "The competition aims to provide an environment and opportunity for Arab filmmakers worldwide to showcase their work and receive recognition for outstanding achievements. It will also help us increase understanding and spread awareness of the Arab culture and way of life to a wide audience through the effective medium of film."

Al Juma added the reason for introducing cash prizes was to encourage excellence in filmmaking in the Arab world.

Spririt

Named "Muhr" — meaning young horse in Arabic and signifying nobility and spirit — the awards will honour the work of Arab filmmakers in feature, documentary and short film categories.

It will also celebrate UAE filmmakers for best script in the short film category and recognise the UAE's "most promising filmmaker" of 2006.

Among the criteria for the competition is that the directors must be of Arab nationality or origin and the subject and storyline of the film must be centred around the Arab world, history or culture.

Competition entries will be judged by a panel of experts from the filmmaking industry.

Neil Stephenson, CEO of the festival, said that from the outset DIFF has tried "to build a unique and cultural bridge through the medium of film".

He said: "We intend to use DIFF as a forum and a vehicle to promote understanding through serious dialogue."

Expanding on the event as a whole, he added: "DIFF is very much an international film festival and as always we will be showing films from around the world."

Cash prizes

The Muhr Awards will offer the following prizes:

Feature films
GOLD: $50,000 (Dh183,600)
SILVER: $40,000 (Dh146,900)
BRONZE: $30,000 (Dh110,200)

Documentaries
GOLD: $40,000 (Dh146,900)
SILVER: $30,000 (Dh110,200)
BRONZE: $20,000 (Dh73,450)

Short film
GOLD: $30,000 (Dh110,200)
SILVER: $20,000 (Dh73,450)
BRONZE: $10,000 (Dh36,700)

Best script for a short film by a UAE filmmaker
GOLD: Dh50,000
SILVER: Dh40,000
BRONZE: Dh30,000

Most promising UAE filmmaker
Dh30,000

On the red carpet

Previous editions of the Dubai Film Festival have attracted the likes of:

Orlando Bloom
Sarah Michelle Geller
Morgan Freeman
Laurence Fishbourne
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Sir Bob Geldof

A tool for understanding

The Dubai International Film Festival's theme has always been Bridging Cultures, Meeting Minds — but organisers said this year it was more important than ever for the message to be spread widely.

Stephenson said recent events — notably the war involving Lebanon and Israel — showed the need for better relations between people of different backgrounds.

"Between Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim, I believe a cultural bridge is more relevant than ever.

"We intend to use DIFF to promote understanding between people and give voice to cultural tolerance," he said.

Abdulhamid Al Juma, Deputy Director General of Tecom, said he hoped some films dealing with events in Lebanon could be shown at the festival.

"DIFF is part of the Dubai government and the UAE has contributed support for the Lebanese people.

"We would like to focus on the role of cinema in events by opening the floor for any film that shows the devastation and the lethal effects of the war on the people — not just the people of Lebanon, but throughout the world," he said.

By I-Cheng Chan and Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporters

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