Abu Dhabi Film Festival Rebrands for Year Four

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Sunday, 10 October 2010 22:02

Written by Laura Blum

Set in the largest sheikdom of the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival enters its fourth edition October 14 to 23, 2010 as a self-appointed oasis of film culture in the Persian Gulf. The Festival, formerly called the Middle East International Film Festival, lists its name change among several innovations accelerating its push to become a mecca of discovery and pulse-taking for current Arab cinema.

Abu Dhabi has been ranked by CNN and Fortune as the world’s richest city, and the Festival can be counted among numerous well-documented efforts to bolster cultural life in this part of the world. In addition to stimulating the local film industry and nurturing its filmmakers, ADFF aims to expose the lay community to cinema culture from around the globe.

Randall Wallace’s Secretariat will open the Festival. John Malkovich and Diane Lane co-star in this screen saga about a historic racehorse. To clinch the 10-day event will be a screening of Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, followed by the Black Pearl Awards ceremony.

This year’s slate presents 70 feature films from nearly 30 countries, refined from more than 2,000 international submissions. According to Executive Director Peter Scarlet, 2010 saw double the submissions over 2009. Some dozen entries will make their world debut in the Emirate, including four that were made in collaboration with SANAD, the fest’s new fund offering development and post-production Dirhams for Arab filmmaking.

These premieres include Sun Dress by Saeed Salmeen (UAE); Here Comes the Rain by Bahij Hojeij and OK, Enough, Goodbye by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia (both from Lebanon and UAE); Taming by Nidal Al-Dibs (Syria); Homeland by George Sluizer (Netherlands), Qarantina by Oday Rasheed (Iraq, Germany, UAE). Other entries hark from Canada, the US, the UK and Egypt.

Fans of Indian cinema are expected swarm the world premieres of Paan Singh Tomar by Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Begali economist–turned-filmmaker Srijit Mukherji’s Autograph. The latter, which marks Mukerji’s directorial debut, is a tale of Tollywood, as the Bengali film industry is nicknamed. To entertain audience questions, the film’s three celebrated stars, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Nandana Sen and Indraneil Sangupta, will make the pilgrimage to Abu Dhabi.

ADFF holds three jousts with a combined cash value of $1million: joining the narrative and documentary competitions is a “New Horizons” section for first- and second-time directors. The Festival prides itself on being the region’s only fest to grant works by Arab filmmakers equal competitive footing alongside those of global talents.

Other sections include the green-minded "What in the World Are We Doing to Our World?" and an international slate dubbed Showcase, which encompasses contenders for $30,000 Audience Award.

Films from such veteran creators as Julian Schnabel, Olivier Assayas, François Ozon and Abbas Kiarostami grace the program. From the archives, the Festival will showcase restored classics and several films from the series “Mapping Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab Cinema” jointly mounted with The Museum of Modern Art and ArteEast.

International juries hark from the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC).

Dig for more details at: http://www.adff.ae

Abu Dhabi Film Festival
October 14 to 23, 2010
CineStar 5
Marina Mall
Abu Dhabi, UAE

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