Saudi student wins DIFF Young Journalist Award

Sarah Al Gethami, a Saudi student at Middlesex University in Dubai, won the DIFF Young Journalist Award at the seventh edition of the festival.

This year, the focus of the Diff Young Journalist Award programme, held in partnership with CNBC Business and Screen International, was on the evolution of journalism, led by social media comprising blogging and tweeting, and its effect on the world of media.

Colin Brown of CNBC Business and Mike Goodridge of Screen International mentored ten selected students in a series of open workshops and a mentoring programme at the Film Forum Room, as part of the programme.

The students were briefed on various aspects of film journalism — film reviews, interviewing talent and industry professionals, monitoring trends, commercial, independent, and foreign film through new technologies such as blogging and Twitter.

Al Gethami, a student at the Middlesex University’s Advertising, PR and Media programme, said: “I had a true experience of film journalism at Diff. I interviewed a lot of people, which was a first for me. Overall, it was totally gratifying and a memorable event for me.”

The programme featured two workshops: “The Future of Film Business Journalism” and “The Role of Journalism at Film Festivals.” Participants of the workshops also used the Festival as their live laboratory to test their skills on deadline and submit their work to the mentors. The selected pieces were published in the Festival’s official newspaper, DIFF Daily.

Launched in 2008 as part of the Dubai Film Market’s commitment to enhance and educate the reporting and writing skills of students within the media and arts film, the Young Journalist Award programme provide students with hands-on training in the development of the culture of cinema appreciation and the film industry.

An appeal against all forms of violence: 678

While the central theme of the Egyptian film ‘Six, Seven, Eight (678), is the plight of women facing sexual harassment, the director, acclaimed scriptwriter Mohamed Diab said the film is an appeal against all forms of violence.

Director and artistes of the film Six, Seven, Eight

Diab and leading cast members of the film were addressing a press conference at the seventh Dubai International Film Festival, where the film marked its World Premiere. The cast and crew also joined other celebrities for a red carpet ceremony of the film’s gala screening.

Condemning violence of all forms, Diab said the film also highlights the need for personal space and privacy, saying that one needs to have a definite individual distance for peaceful co-existence. “We are a young generation that strives to write about issues of social relevance. In that sense, ‘Six, Seven, Eight’ is not only thoroughly contemporary but it also tries to convey a message that will resonate with every man who has a mother, wife or daughter.”

“Harassment is not only sexual – there is also harassment of feelings, privacy and emotions. We are proud to discuss such a universal issue in the Egyptian cinema. I stress that we can’t treat violence with violence, but as we can see, social boundaries drive individuals to tackle every issue differently.”

Actors Bushra, Maged El Kidwany, Nelly Karim, Bassem Samra, Omar Al Saeed, Nahed Farid, and producer Bushra Rozza were present at the press conference.

‘Six, Seven, Eight’ is competing for the Muhr Arab Feature Award, and will be screened on Dec. 15, 3.45pm at Cinestar 9 at Mall of the Emirates.

Diff showcases must-watch tales from the Arab World, Africa and Asia

The seventh Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) is showcasing an array of hard-hitting tales from the Arab world, Africa and Asia, their gripping social narratives making them a must-watch film experience. Among the must-watch films at Diff'10 are Baghdad Film School, Koundi and the National Thursday, Yongsan and Zelal.

Screening on Wednesday, Dec. 15 at 10 pm at Cinestar 9, Mall of the Emirates (MoE), is director Shuchen Tan’s ‘Baghdad Film School.’ The film is about Iraqi born filmmakers Maysoon Pachachi and Kasim Abid who developed the challenging idea to open up the first independent film school in Iraq. 'Baghdad Film School' is a story about film making in a post-war environment and what it takes to be an independent filmmaker in a country tormented by violence.

Director Ariane Astrid Atodji’s ‘Koundi and the National Thursday,’ screening on Dec. 14 at 3.15pm at Cinestar 6 of MoE, is about Koundi, a large village with around 1,200 inhabitants. Gorgeously shot, the film is a heartfelt look at life inside a communal society that seeks to balance the demands of globalisation and the search for uniquely African solutions.

Screening on Dec. 15, 7pm, at Cinestar 8 is director Jeong-hyun Mun’s ‘Yongsan,’ a stirring tale. On 20 January 2009, five tenants of the Yongsan district, who were forcefully evicted from their homes staged a sit-in and were burned to death in their apartment block. This personal essay documentary recalls the many movements of Korean civil rights and activism and asks where all the idealism went, even as the atrocities return today.

From the Arab world is ‘Zelal,’ a quiet masterpiece of hard-hitting reportage by directors Mustapha Hasnaoui and Marianne Khoury. Filmed in two large asylums, the film reveals the horrific conditions in which patients are expected to live - squalor and neglect is endemic, staff are stretched beyond breaking point, therapy and treatment seems non-existent.

Diff’10 to host public conversation with Sean Penn

DIFF ALERT: IN CONVERSATION WITH SEAN PENN EVENT

Note:- The Dubai International Film Festival informs its fans that Lifetime Achievement Honoree Sean Penn is unable to attend DIFF 2010 due to the political situation and upheaval in Haiti following the recent election. Penn has flown to Haiti to check on his staff and camp.

Penn has issued the following statement to all DIFF fans:

“I am honored to receive the Dubai Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award and had every intention of being there to accept it in person. Regretfully, the situation in Haiti has worsened and it was of the utmost importance that I be there to ensure the safety of my staff and the J/P HRO camp. I look forward to attending Dubai’s Festival in the future.” – Sean Penn

Fans who bought tickets to the public audience are being contacted by the DIFF Box Office; they can either exchange their tickets for other DIFF screenings or get a refund.

For more information about the work Sean Penn and his organization are doing in Haiti, go to www.jphro.org.

A-list American actor and director and international social and political activist Sean Penn will participate in a public ‘In Conversation With,’ question-and-answer session with fans from across the nation on Dec. 13 at the First Group Theatre, Madinat Jumeirah, from 7pm to 8pm. Tickets to the event, priced at Dhs25, are on sale now.

Into the Wild

Penn, whose career spans nearly three decades, more than 45 films and notable successes as producer, actor, director and screenwriter, is one of the Festival’s three Lifetime Achievement honorees this year. Two-time Academy Award winner and five-time nominee Penn is best known for his performances in Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown, I Am Sam, Mystic River, Milk and older genre classics Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Carlito’s Way.

Sweet and Lowdown

His performances have also been singled out by the Cannes and Berlin film festivals and critics associations around the world, as has his directing work on films including Into the Wild, The Crossing Guard and The Pledge.

Penn’s humanitarian work — including his reportage from Iran and Iraq in recent years, and tireless campaigning on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the earthquake-ravaged Haiti – has also won numerous admirers around the world. In January 2010, Penn founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organization, which focuses on medical aid, protection, and re-location.

Diff’10 is screening two path-breaking movies from Penn’s extraordinary repertoire: Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and Into the Wild (2007).

DIFF’s Rhythm & Reels showcases bio-pics, musicals and Live concerts

Celebrating the union of cinema and music, the Rhythm & Reels segment of the Seventh Dubai International Film Festival this year showcases a spectacular line-up of bio-pics and musicals, complemented by live performances by popular Arab and international acts from Rima Khcheich, Massar Egbari and Y-Crew to a mariachi ensemble specially flown in from Mexico.

The DIFF 2010 Rhythm & Reels line-up includes compelling documentaries on John Lennon and American rock band The Doors, as well as leading underground acts from Egypt. Screening at DIFF venues at the Mall of the Emirates and the new DIFF outdoor venue, The Walk at JBR, Rhythm & Reels will feature 11 films – four documentaries and seven features – all with a rich musical undercurrent.

Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Artistic Director, Dubai International Film Festival said: “DIFF’s Rhythm & Reels is aimed at integrating two vibrant artforms – films and music. In addition to paying cinematic tribute to some of the world’s legendary musicians, this year DIFF is showcasing an eclectic selection of music-based movies from around the world. We have also worked to maximize the community’s interaction with these films by organizing concerts and a new outdoor venue.”

Mexican classic Enamorada, the story of guerrilla general José Juan Reyes and his love for a rich man’s daughter, will screen at The Walk at JBR on Wednesday, December 15. The screening, part of DIFF 2010’s celebration of Mexican cinema, will be followed by a concert featuring 12 performers from Mexico, the six-member mariachi Grupo Impulsor de la Musica Representativa de Mexico and a six-member team of folk dancers from the Ballet Folklorico Yolitzi Widen de La Laguna.

My Wife’s Husband (Jaoz Marti) starring DIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award’s recipient, Sabah, is the comic love story of a woman torn between two husbands. Renowned Lebanese singer Rima Khcheich, a musical icon in the Arab world, will perform at The Walk at JBR following the screening on Thursday, December 16.

Microphone, a film by Heliopolis director Ahmed Abdallah El-Sayed, stars Khaled Aboul Naga, Menna Shalaby, Atef Yousef, Yosra El-Lozy and Hany Adel. It traces the life of Khaled, who returns to Alexandria after years of travel only to discover that things aren't going too well with either his girlfriend or his aging father.

Following the screening of Microphone, Rhythm & Reels will host Arab rock-fusion band Massar Egbari, and underground hip-hop band the Y-Crew in concert on Friday, December 17. The award-winning Massar Egbari, which formed in 2005, specializes in alternative Egyptian music, fusing rock, jazz and blues with pure Oriental music. Y-Crew, the three-member Egyptian hip hop band, will also perform at the concert at The Walk at JBR.

LENNONNYC

LENNONNYC, from the genius mind of Michael Epstein, gives audiences a glimpse of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s life in New York in the 1970s. Featuring exclusive interviews with Ono and behind-the-scenes access to one of rock and roll’s biggest legends, LENNONNYC is guaranteed to leave music lovers wanting more.

In a compelling take on the musical stylings of The Doors, Tom DiCillo’s When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors uncovers rare footage of the band that changed the outlook of rock n’ roll music. The film reveals the creative chemistry of the band, and provides glances into the magic of the music created by The Doors.

Rahma Benhamou El Madani’s Tagnawittude delves into the Gwana music ritual in the Maghreb. The documentary analyses the life of Amazigh Kateb and his band Gwana Diffusion, the talent behind a unique style of music since 1992.

The Piano in a Factory

Shahin Parhami’s Amin is about a postgraduate music student, researching for a doctorate degree at the Kiev Conservatory. Part of his programme requires him to explore the increasingly elusive folk music of the ancient Qashqai tribes of southern Iran. This journey of discovery, a fascinating exploration into the heartlands of Iran uncovers a once-vibrant cultural force now eroded into near obsolescence.

To fight for the custody of his daughter, a steel factory worker decides to create a piano from scratch to compete for her love for the instrument in Zhang Meng’s The Piano in a Factory. A ballad of friendship and dedication, the film captures the essence of unspoken wisdom and nostalgia in uncertain times.

Tickets for Rhythm & Reels screenings will be available at all DIFF Box Office, and are priced at Dhs25 for movie screenings only and Dhs45 for the screening and concert. Students/children can purchase tickets for Dhs25.

Best of contemporary cinema focused on the Arab world will screen at DIIF ‘Arabian Nights’ slate

Eleven films representing the best of contemporary international cinema focused on the Arab world will screen at seventh Dubai International Film Festival [Dec 12-19], providing a typical look at some of the issues and subjects that absorb the Arab world.

The Festival’s Arabian Nights segment of this year includes dramas, comedies, musicals and thrillers by international directors depicting slices of life in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Palestine, Algeria and Mauritania. They include two world premieres, one international premiere, six that are new to the Middle East and two new to the Gulf region; and a host of unusual collaborations.

Set in Iraq but made in Italy, 20 Cigarettes is the story of one man’s journey back from the brink of death. The film pivots on a 2003 suicide bomb attack on a police station in Nasiriyah.

Two documentaries look at the cathartic power of cinema. Made in the Netherlands, Baghdad Film School is the true story of Iraqi-born filmmakers Maysoon Pachachi and Kasim Abid, who decided to open the first independent film school in Iraq only a few months after its liberation.

Farther north in Iraqi Kurdistan, British filmmaker Mark Cousins discovers that despite being a thriving community, the people of Goptapa are still haunted by Saddam Hussein’s genocidal massacres. While trying to capture the village’s collective memories of war, Cousins manages to tap the fertile imaginations of its children. His documentary, The First Movie, documents the children’s joy and excitement as they encounter cinema for the first time and then start to create their own short stories.

Bullet Time

Also set in Iraqi Kurdistan, Bullet Time tells the story of two humanitarian workers who brave curfew to save their interpreter's son, wounded by a landmine.

The Flowers of Kirkuk, probably one of the first Italian-Iraqi film collaborations to date, looks onto star-crossed lovers and doctors Najla and Sherko who know they can’t be together as one is Kurdish and the other from a prominent Arab family.

he City of the Dead

In Cairo, director Sérgio Tréfaut’s The City of the Dead takes a closer look at the sprawl of ancient tombs, mausoleums, and crypts in the heart of the city. The area, dubbed ‘El Arafa’ (The Cemetery), by the locals, is also home to a community of nearly a million Cairenes living amongst the long-dead.

In Fragments of a Lost Palestine, filmmaker Norma Marcos tries to show her friend Stefan how normal people try to live normal lives outside of the occupation, and that there is a vibrant side of Palestine that exists outside of grim reports of violence and war.

Iranian director Taha Karimi sets his first, beautifully filmed, dramatic feature against the violent yet stunning backdrop of the Qandil mountains, where the borders of Turkey, Iran and Iraq meet. The Qandil Mountains, featuring veteran stage and screen actor Qotbeddin Sadeqi, attempts to draw the common concerns that link Arab with Kurd, Turkmen with Persian.

Antonia Carver, Consultant for DIFF’s Arab Programme, said: "These are incredibly diverse stories, yet the films are universal in their approach, focusing on individuals, families and communities, and touching on the extraordinary within these 'ordinary' situations. If we had to look for one constant, it would be the integrity and bravery of the filmmakers and their crews, who have made films in the most extreme of circumstances, with total humanity, making for such rich and compelling films."

Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Artistic Director of the Dubai International Film Festival, said: “The films in this year’s Arabian Nights programme have an entirely different approach. We’re seeing foreign films based in the region and starring Arabs and non-Arabs, Arab films starring celebrated stage actors, and Arab films made entirely outside the region. People are experimenting more, and the results are very worthwhile discoveries.”

Arabian Nights 2010 also includes Il Padre E Lo Straniero (The Father and the Foreigner) by Ricky Tognazzi, a suspenseful drama from top crime novelist Giancarlo De Cataldo involving a rich Syrian businessman based in Rome who finds himself accused of terrorism. The film, starring the Arab world’s Nadine Labaki and Amr Waked alongside Alessandro Gassman, follows a Roman bureaucrat with a handicapped son who strikes up a friendship with the businessman, also the father of a severely handicapped boy, which ends in a chase through the crowded streets of Rome.

Mohammed Soudani’s El Mektoub (Taxiphone), about a young Swiss couple whose truck breaks down halfway through the Algerian desert leaving them to come to terms with the surrounding community, is also a Middle East premiere.

Finally, Adrift: People of a Lesser God, is the story of an incredible odyssey made by multiple Pulitzer Prize-nominee undercover journalist Dominique Mollard as he sailed with 38 African migrants from Mauritania on a quest to reach Europe and a better life.

DIFF 10 to focus on Arab cinema, unveils 157 films from 57 countries

The King’s Speech based on the true story of King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II is the opening film of Diff 2010. The male lead of the film Colin Firth will walk at the red carpet.

DIFF honours two time Academy Award winning actor Sean Penn, veteran African director Souleymane Cisse and Lebanese singer and actress Sabah with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bollywood hit maker Karan Johar and actress Aparna Sen will attend the DIFF 2010.

Master Director Peter Weir, actor Jim Sturges, Collin Farrell and Ed Harris will be in Dubai for the red carpet gala screening of The Way Back.

The closing gala film of the DIIF 2010 is Disney’s long awaited 3D high tech adventure Tron: Legacy.

Sean Penn

The Seventh Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) to be held from Dec.12 to 19 is set to unveil 157 films from 57 nations, with outstanding Arab programming at its core.

Officials highlighted the Diff as the leading festival in the world, at a press conference held on Tuesday in Majlis Al ‘Salam, Mina Al Salam, Dubai.

Abdulhamid Juma, Diff chairman, Masoud Amralla Al Ali, artistic director at Diff, and Shivani Pandya, Managing Director of Diff outlined what’s in store for DIFF 2010, including the impressive line-up of films, The Dubai Film Market and the celebrities attending the event.

Diff 2010 unveils an outstanding array of contemporary Arab cinema, a robust competition segment and a film market growing from strength to strength and enhanced access for the public.

Amongst its roster of films from South America, Taiwan Sweden and South Africa, Diff features 41 world premiers, a 30 per cent growth from last year. Diff 2010 has 13 International premieres, 58 Middle East premieres and 32 Gulf premieres, and a host of A-List talent. Among the 157 Diff 2010 films, 70 are regarding Arab people, subjects and places.

Ed Harris and Colin Farrell in The Way Back

The celebrity line-up participating in the Diff 2010 include celebrated American actor, director, screenwriter and activist Sean Penn. He will be honoured with the Diff 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award. The male lead Colin Firth of the opening film King’s Speech will walk at the red carpet. Others include Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess and director and producer Peter Weir will all be in Dubai for the red carpet gala screening of The Way Back.

Other important red carpet events are the Arabian gala screening of 678, one of the most anticipated films from Egyptian cinema and the controversial Egyptian love story Cairo Exit from the Diff Cultural Bridge segment.

Also, the polish film Tomorrow Will Be Better will screen from the festival’s Cinema of World Programme. Emirati filmmaker Abdullah Al Ka’abi’s maiden venture The Philosopher will also be screened from its Muhr competition.

Reign of Assassins

Chinese martial arts extravaganza Reign of Assassins from the Festival’s cinema of Asia Africa slate will also be shown. Actor Jean Rino, Carey Mulligan, Africa’s Souleymane Cisse and Arab stars Khaled Abol Naga, Bushra, Nelly Karim, Saba Mubarak, Ayman Zeidan, Samar Sami and Raghda are the international celebrities attending the prestigious event.

Abdul hamid Juma, Chairman Diff said “The seventh edition of the Dubai International Film Festival will be extra special not only for the powerful showcase of movies, but also for the largest selection of quality, contemporary Arab cinema anywhere in the world.”

Nutcracker and The Rat King

The Festivals Arab films, representing the length and breadth of the Arab world, are primarily distributed among its in-competition Muhr Arab and Muhr Emirati Awards segment and its out-of-competition Arabian Nights and Gulf Voices segments. The competitions will be judged by professional juries and all screenings are open to the public.

 Underscoring the growing prestige of the Festival’s competition, Diff’s in-competition Muhr Awards have scooped a record 848 entries, with the Muhr Arab segment drawing 62 feature films, 228 short films, and 113 documentary films.

The Muhr AsiaAfrica competition, dedicated for filmmakers from Asia and Africa, similarly received 445 entries, encompassing 136 feature films, 199 short films, and 110 documentary films.

The Festival’s new Muhr Emirati competition, introduced to further strengthen and recognise rising Emirati talent, received 25 feature films, short films, and documentaries.