The Dubai International Film Festival today announced the appointment of Masoud Amralla Al Ali as the Festival Artistic Director. In his new capacity, Al Ali will oversee the programming for the festival that comprises films from Arab and international filmmakers. He will be ably assisted by a qualified team of programmers and colleague, Simon Field, the Director for International Programming. A UAE National, Al Ali was the Artistic Director of the UAE Cultural Foundation and the founder of the ...
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) today announced that the second annual Muhr Awards for Excellence in Arab Cinema is now open, and will be accepting submissions until 31st August 2007. As part of the festival’s mandate of promoting Arab cinema, winners in three categories—feature films, shorts and documentaries—will receive handsome prizes that amount to over AED 1 million.Competing films must be made by a director of Arab nationality or origin, and the subject and storyline of...
Crossing Boundaries, a documentary film by Bilal Yusef, was selected as the winning film in the Other Israel Competition at the 24th Annual Jerusalem Film Festival which closed this past weekend. The film also received the Best Documentary Award, as well as the Wim Van Leer "In The Spirit of Freedom" Award presented at the gala awards ceremony in the Israeli capital. CROSSING BOUNDARIES presents a sensitive look at two Arab women in Israel, Aisha Sidawee and Umima Abu Ras, joining “Ta’ayush...
Tuesday, February 27----New York film buffs have the opportunity to experience the creative vitality and sociopolitical realities of North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia at the 2007 New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival (NYASAFF), which began last weekend and continues through Sunday, March 4th. The Festival is a collaborative effort among several cultural and media organizations, including Alwan For The Arts, 3rd i NY, South Asian Women's Creative Collective and Downtown ...
In the handsome press book for the new Agnieszka Holland musical biopic "Copying Beethoven" writer/producer Christopher Wilkinson, regarding the appearance of actor Ed Harris in the title role, is quoted as having said on a visit to the set, "I see Beethoven standing there -- but what have they done with Ed Harris?" If Ed Harris does to some extent disappear into the skin of the composer in this not-to-be-denied bravura acting job, and if the trompe l'oeil maquillage really does makes it hard ...
As the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) gathers momentum for its third edition this December, it is inviting submissions in the categories of features, shorts and documentaries to its new Arab Film Competition. “DIFF has launched an Arab Film Competition in order to fulfill one of its core objectives – showcasing and promoting excellence in Arab cinema,” commented Festival CEO, Neil Stephenson.The Competition satisfies this objective through carefully composed criteria - films must...
A series of key changes highlight the development of the Dubai International Film Festival. The festival’s credo of bridging cultures and meeting minds will be particularly prevalent during its December 10-17 run this year when it will be taking further serious steps to tackle controversial issues while facilitating and stimulating intelligent dialogue. One step toward this goal is the introduction of the Sheikh Zayed Award, a lifetime achievement award to be given to a member of the film in...
In the past two years the subject matter of this festival concentrated heavily on themes of the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations. This year the program is of a spicier variety with a heavier than usual input of films from Israel. The big discovery and surprise so far has been a rib-tickling comedy from Israel entitled "Like a Fish Out of Water" (RT, 56 minutes) by 28 year old helmer Leon Pudovsky. The story centers on a freewheeling Argentine immigrant to Israel, a thoroughly unkosher Lat...
“Paradise Now, which was featured at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, plays tonight at the University of California at Santa Barbara.Over the past few months, Hany Abu-Assad’s film, “Paradise Now” has been honored and excoriated simultaneously. While being nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, winning several other awards, and enjoying critical acclaim, the controversial Palestinian film about the last 48 hours of two would-be suicide b...
The NY International Sephardic Jewish Film Festival, the first festival dedicated to showcasing international films with distinctly Sephardic themes, celebrates 10 years of cinematic explorations of Sephardic Jewry presented in a weeklong series of screenings, compelling panel discussions, and events. The festival, co-sponsored by the Yeshiva University Museum and the Manhattan JCC will take place from February 2 to 8, 2006 with screenings at the Center for Jewish History and one screening at t...
Ayla Ojjeh and Sarah Ibrahim are Paris’ Arab Communities’ ambassadors in the last episode of the regional competition; “Ad-Darb”Paris – France, 15 December 2005: Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) concluded its three-day tour in Paris, during which it engaged the Arab viewers on top of the school students who came from different parts of Paris to participate in its regional competition “Ad-Darb”.Al Jazeera Children Channel, the region’s first “edutainment” channel, has con...
International and regional film stars, industry leaders and filmmakers from around the world expected to grace tonight’s red carpet opening gala Months of planning and preparation will culminate in grand style tonight as international celebrities, regional stars and UAE VIPs walk up an 80-metre long red carpet and into the Madinat Jumeirah Arabian Resort at 8pm Sunday (December 11, 2005), to officially open the second Dubai International Film Festival. Lit up by sky trackers and a state-of-the...
It's fairly unusual at a film festival with umpteen titles to pick from that one selects three names out of a hat, and all three turn out to be not only winners, back to back, but films of quality ranging from excellent to astounding. Today's triple winning ticket: "ZOZO" from Norway by way of Beirut, "Fratricide" Brudermord) -- astounding turf battle between Turks and Kurds in a German city, and "Bashing", a hypnotic Kafkaesque look at life on Desolation Row in a northern Japanese industrial w...
Kilometre Zero , Hiner Saleem, France, 2005The title of Hiner Saleem’s new film is used metaphorically to explain that in the 80 years of Iraqian modern history there has been virtually no progress. Saleem who fled Iraq under Saadam Hussein claims , “when you start from zero, the only direction to go is forward”. In real life Saleem’s brother was taken against his will on the way to the bakery one day and inducted into the Iraqian army. Saleem did not return to Kurdistan until the fall...
First Dubai Film Festival Ends on High Note, Impressing Industry Guests, Local Festival-goers, More than 18,000 screening tickets issued during six-day Festival The first Dubai International Film Festival ended on an upbeat note yesterday, with international celebrities and industry executives complimenting DIFF organizers on a promising and successful first Festival, and Festival-goers praising the diversity of cinema brought to these shores for the first time. More than 13,000 people from arou...
Inaugural festival guests expected to attend include Prince Albert of Monaco, Archbishop Tutu, Morgan Freeman, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Harvey Weinstein, Amitabh Bachchan.The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) today announced the program for its inaugural event which will take place December 6-11, 2004.The festival will be held under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister and the Chairmanship of His Highness...
THE 21ST INTERNATIONAL JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVALThe 21st International Jerusalem Film Festival ended Saturday, July 17, with the award presentation ceremony.The awards were as follows:The Wolgin Awards for Israeli CinemaIn the category of Israeli feature films:Best Films “Atash –Thirst” and “Or”“Atash – Thirst” (Israel) – A family abandoned their home 10 years earlier and live in the middle of nowhere with two goats and a donkey. The father decides to illegally divert water to th...
JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL IN WARSAWBy Alex Deleon-PevnyTHE First International Festival of Jewish films ever to be held in Warsaw --officially "FILMS ON JEWISH MOTIFS -- '04"-- took place from 18 to 27 April. Produced essentially on a shoestring budget, by Mirek Chojecki,himself a veteran documentary film maker, it was also given a good dose of moral support by various luminaries of the Polish film world, including Andrzej Wajda, awarded a Hollywood Oscar for his life's work two years ago. Sixty f...
Last-minute entry: Forum to show Jehane Noujaim's Control RoomThe Forum has decided to include Control Room by Jehane Noujaim in its programme as another documentary focussing on the year’s main political topic. The 90-minute film addresses the media battle behind the American campaign in Iraq. The Egyptian-American director witnessed the toppling of the Ba’athist regime from two completely different perspectives in Qatar on the Persian Gulf. On the one hand, there were the American propagan...
