Abu Dhabi Film Festival

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival returns from 11 – 20 October for its sixth year, with an exciting programme that promises to showcase the best Arab filmmaking alongside the cream of world cinema.

Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Following its critical acclaim at the 69th Venice Film Festival, Mira Nair’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist,’ a Doha Film Institute (DFI) financed film, will mark its MENA premiere, to usher in the fourth edition of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF).

The sixth Rome Film Festival, marred by protests over cuts in arts funding and struggles to attract big stars, ended with the top prize going to Sebastian Borensztein’s “A Chinese Tale”.

International Shows and Promising Talents

The fifth Abu Dhabi Film Festival, (formerly called the Middle East Film Festival), held between 13 until the 22 of October 2011; has become a highly attractive cinematic station. Whether it is for modern and international shows, discovering the promising talents in the cinematic field, its generous financial awards to winners or for supporting the cinema production through the “Sanad” fund, Abu Dhabi has it all.

This recent film festival was shown to be more established towards cinematic concern and forming a well developed management team which included a diverse and distinguished team of experts and professionals under American chairman, Peter Scarlet.

Predicting who may or may not win an Oscar is a dangerous game. But we are fearless in this regard. At this point, it looks like the race is starting to dwindle down, with ‘War Horse’, ‘The Artist’ and ‘The Descendants looking like the mightiest trio for many of the big races. Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Viola Davis, George Clooney, Leonardo diCaprio, Octavia Spencer, Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Plummer seem all but assured as acting nominees, but there’s much murkiness beyond them.

As the precursors are announced throughout December, things should start looking more and more clear. Come Oscar night and no doubt we will regret adding some, if not most, of the names we’ve listed below.

Hawi And Balls Take Arab Film Competition Prizes At Second Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Hawi won Best Arab Film and Balls picked up the award for Best Arab Filmmaker in recognition for its screenplay at the second Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) which came to a dramatic end at the Closing Night Gala and open-air concert by superstar Ragheb Alama along the Arabian Gulf at Katara Cultural Village.

Kuwait-based environmental film festival spreads its wings to Dubai for 2010

After the great success of the first Green Caravan Film Festival in 2009, organisers - Kuwait’s environmental consultants Equilibrium - have added a screening in Dubai for 2010. The program includes eight internationally acclaimed films, each of which takes aspects of the environment and sustainability as its core. Many of the films will make for uncomfortable viewing as we witness the impact our daily lives have on the world around us - but ultimately the festival aims, through adding to our greater knowledge, to spread a message of hope. Partnering with Equilibrium and supporting the festival are: UN-Habitat, UNDP, 350, KERA, tck tck tck, and Senyar. For full information visit www.thegreencaravan.com

Ruari McLeod’s life in film

These are heady days for the movie business in the region. An increasing number of films are being funded and filmed in the Gulf - many of them receive global acclaim, and the burgeoning interest in movies sees our film festivals becoming ever more popular - Kuwait’s environmental film festival, Green Caravan, kicks off again shortly as does the international Doha Tribeca Film Festival. To start off a big couple of months for movies Kuwait-resident film director and editor, Ruari McLeod, talks of his life spent in the business. During his lengthy career he’s worked, and continues to work, on film as diverse as ‘Ali G Indahouse’ and ‘Mamma Mia’.

Award winning Palestinian Film Director Hany Abu-Assad named President of the Jury for the Doha Tribeca Film Festival

Internationally acclaimed Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad has been appointed President of the Jury for the 2010 Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) which runs 26th to 30th October 2010. Abu-Assad will be the first Jury President of the festival which held its inaugural event last year and will preside over DTFF’s Arab Film Competition awarding prizes for Best Arab Film and Best Arab Filmmaker.

His 2006 film Paradise Now, about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign language film in 2006, won the Golden Calf for best Dutch film, and was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film.

Sheikha Al Zain Al Sabah forsees a bright future for Kuwait’s film-makers

Movies and movie -making have rarely achieved such a high profile across the whole breadth of the Middle East. For the first time ever this surge in interest has spawned a plethora of new film festivals of various sizes and stature.

Leading this movement are a number of dynamic and passionate people, including Sheikha Al Zain Al Sabah. A producer of films including the award-winning ‘Amreeka’ and ‘Journey To Mecca’, hers is one of a growing number of voices who are determined to establish the Middle East, and in her case specifically Kuwait, firmly on the global movie-making map.

For Sheikha Al Zain the rapid growth in the number of regional film festivals is perhaps the most visible evidence of the strength of the film business in the region.

You’d have to have been living on the moon to have escaped the phenomenon that Mohammed Saeed Harib created when he produced the first series of Freej in 2006. Since then the characters Um Saeed, Um Saloom, Um Allawi and Um Khammas have built up a huge following, and the success of the series has spawned a new boardgame - the Freej UAE Challenge.

More than 35,000 people, along with Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Mira Nair, Sir Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Adel Emam, Youssra and Elia Sulieman, attended Qatar’s first international film festival.

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival was formed through a strategic partnership by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and CEO Abdulla Al Najjar of the Qatar Museums Authority and the Tribeca Film Festival Founders, Jane Rosenthal, Craig Hatkoff, and Robert De Niro. The arrangement was spearheaded by DTFF Executive Director Amanda Palmer. Uniquely Qatari in its identity, the festival is modelled on the success of Tribeca Film Festival’s dedication to engage the local community and promote filmmaking talent. In its inaugural year, Doha’s first international film festival will celebrate the best of Arabic and international cinema. 

Surely it’s the easiest job in the world. Look at the ingredients that go into the show’s mix; Keifer Sutherland, a compelling storyline delivered through an exquisitely crafted script, a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode - much of which is spent on some of the greatest stunts and special effects on TV today. It’s a ‘can’t fail’ combination. Yet, even these are not enough on their own. 

We managed to catch up with Osama Bastaqi shortly after his return from the Cannes Film Festival, where he’d been presenting his new mini-series, a trilogy of movies featuring new action-adventure hero Jack Hunter. The three movies - the first of which is entitled “Jack Hunter – The Legend of Ugarit” - have been sold for global distribution, and you can expect to see them in Kuwait some time soon. More of the movies later; back to Osama for now.