HOW ALWAYS, BEFORE THE CHRISTMAS VACATION, DURING THE MOST PURPOSE OF THE YEAR ROUND, DUBAI DECKED THE FIRST TRADITIONAL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR THE 7TH TIME IN DUBAI. Whole constellation of famous actors including Jean Reno, Sean Penn, Colin Firth, Ayman Zeidan, AHMAD Bedir and others, arrived in Dubai, not just to walk on the red carpet ANOTHER film festivals, but also to take part in the presentation of his new paintings and a world premiere at EVERYTHING NEW, BUT GETTING STRENGTH AREA DIFF. ACCORDING TO ABDULHAMID JUMA, DIFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IN 2010, THE FILM FESTIVAL PROMISED TO BE THE MOST INTERESTING AND "SATURATED" WORLD CELEBRITY FOR EVERYTHING. IN PRINCIPLE, MR. THE DIRECTOR WASN'T SINRING AGAINST TRUTH, 157 FILMS WAS SHOWN IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE 7TH DIFF ISSUE, AT THIS, 41 OF THEM ARE THE WORLD PREMIERES.
Attention, the king says!
This year the festival was opened by the long-awaited, widely discussed premiere of The King's Speech, directed by Tom Hooper. Prior to arriving in Dubai, the film had already won the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, which ended September 19, and was presented at the London International Film Festival in mid-October 2010.
This year, the organizers of the Dubai Festival specially opened for everyone a new platform for film screenings in the open air, which was located on The Walk Avenue of Jumeirah Beach Residence. There, on a huge screen, the audience could see not only everything that happened during the opening of the festival on the “red carpet”, but also watch the picture “King's Speech”, which opened a seven-day cinema marathon.
If you get a little distracted by the red carpet, then the 7th Dubai International Film Festival was honored by such Hollywood stars and the world film industry as Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jean Reno, Andrei Konchalovsky with his wife, actress Julia Vysotskaya, Kelly Brook, Emma Cowfield , Maya Sansa, Carey Mulligan, Bo Garriett, Jim Stargis, Peter Weir, Karan Johan, Johnny Tu and Aparna Sen. The list of star guests from the countries of the Arab region was made up of such famous names as Khaled Abdul Taga, Menna Shalab, Bushra, Nelly Karim, Majid Kivani, Saba Mubarak, Muhammed Kubbani, Ayman Zeydan, Samar Sami, Mara Jabar, Faris Al Helo, Nabil Toumi, Muhammad Ramadan, Marihan, Sanaa Muzayn, Hala Sarhan, Shirin Adel, Ragda and Rima Hcheich, as well as Khalid Amin, Khalid Al Breki, Daoud Husseini Lamiya Tarek, Ilham Alfadalla, Haifa Hussein Yousef, Juma Al Lim and many others.
All of them solemnly walked along the "red carpet" to be the first to take part in the premiere viewing of "King's Speech". The plot of this historical drama tells about the duke, who is preparing to become the British king George VI (Colin Firth), the father of the current Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, the hero reluctantly agrees to the throne. Exhausted by a terrible nervous stutter and doubts about his ability to lead the country, George turns to an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Log (Jeffrey Rush) for help. After a series of unexpected techniques and as a result of the friendship of two dissimilar people, the main character finally finds his royal voice and boldly leads England to war.
The wife of King George VI, the queen was played by the brilliant Helena Bonham Carter. The film also starred Jennifer El, Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi, Timothy Spall and others. Before the screening in Dubai, the film had already managed to win the favor of critics, not even going to the official movie box office. Many predict him an Oscar next year. For many viewers in the Emirates, this film was an opportunity to once again “peep through the keyhole” for the life and customs of the British royal family, especially since constant news from Misty Albion informing about the recent engagement of Prince William, or the November visit of Queen Elizabeth II herself and her The wife of the Duke of Edinburgh in the UAE, at the invitation of the Emirate President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, constantly fuels interest in the existence of the former royal patrons of this region.
Since the plot of this British-Australian project is the real story of the British royal family, the filmmakers tried to squeeze the maximum of authenticity from the known facts, and were very careful with the unknown. “We tried to be very careful and not go into areas that are unknown or that were not clear to us. Of course, the royal family does not share their secrets with anyone, but they should not. My family does not do this either. Therefore we had to guess something. And it was not easy, I can’t even imagine how difficult it really is to be a member of such a family, "said actor Colin Firth, who arrived in Dubai to show the picture.
From South America to South Korea Such is the geography of the participating countries of the 7th Dubai International Film Forum. The number of countries announced at the festival screenings is 57, and the number of applicants for the main prize is 157. Among the films selected by the jury were: one of the most anticipated works of the Egyptian cinematographers Six, Seven, Eight (Six, Seven, Eight); the controversial love drama "Exit to Cairo" (Cairo Exit), also presented by the Egyptian director in the nomination "Cultural Bridge DIFF"; Polish film “Tomorrow Will Be Better” in the program “World Cinema”; The Nutcracker in 3D (The Nutcracker 3-D) by Andrei Konchalovsky in the program for children and animated films; short film "The Philosopher" of the Emirate filmmaker Abdullah Al Qa'abi in the Muhr competition program; and a Chinese painting on martial arts, “Reign of Assassins” in the film festival of Asia and Africa.
The main focus of the festival program fell on contemporary Arab cinema. The competition program included films by directors from Egypt, Palestine, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Morocco and other countries whose work was evaluated in special nominations of the Muhr Arab and Muhr Emirati Awards ("Best Arab Film" and "Best Emirate Film"), as well as in the categories Arabian Nights ("Arabian Nights") and Gulf Voices ("Gulf Voices").
In addition, the best films shot by directors from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and Australia, as well as Russia, including 41 world and 13 regional premieres, were shown at the Dubai International Film Festival. Needless to say, the spread of genres covered everything from thrillers to comedies, from drama to documentary films, from short films to children's fiction and animated films. Joint projects were interesting for both the jury and the audience, for example, the famous French actor and director Jean Reno, in addition to his participation in DIFF, worked with the little-known but extremely talented director from Fujairah (UAE) Abdullah Al Kaabi on the film "Philosopher". The picture, which tells about a successful pianist who became a football player and then unexpectedly decides to quit everything, was also shown as part of the DIFF competition program.
Not just a Nutcracker ...
... And "The Nutcracker 3D", shot by the famous Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky, and shown in the competition program for children and animated films. It seems that Russian filmmakers are slowly but surely imbued with respect for the emergence of new festival venues in the Middle East, an example of the brilliant victories of our directors at film screenings in AbuDhabi, where last year the first prize "Black Pearl" was awarded to Valery Todorovsky and his picture "Dandies" , and this year the rather controversial film "Oatmeal" by Alexei Fedorchenko was named the best in the emirate capital. Last year, Sergei Bodrov Sr. took part in the work of the Dubai cinema jury, and now - the films of leading Russian directors take part in the competition program.
The idea of creating this New Year's and beloved fairy tale by all appeared long ago. A screen version of Ernst Theodor Hoffmann's tales with a huge budget of $ 90 million was released in America in English with the participation of American and European movie stars. I must say that it turned out an amazing project with unimaginable special effects, which were worked on by leading Hollywood designers and 3D graphics. This film is not an absolute film adaptation. This is a completely new, unusual "The Nutcracker", although, according to Andrei Konchalovsky, the plot, of course, is based on the familiar tale of E. Hoffmann. The musical accompaniment of the picture is the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky, and it is no coincidence in the arrangement of Eduard Artemyev, since it turned out exactly what it should turn out: a funny, fantastic, and sometimes incredibly scary fairy tale. Exactly what our children lack so much.
In addition to the master of Russian cinema, the film "The Happiness of Mine" by the famous Ukrainian director and documentary screenwriter Sergei Loznitsa took part in the competition program for documentaries of the 7th Dubai International Film Festival. The picture takes place in the post-Soviet hinterland: a truck driver leaves his unfaithful wife at home and leaves for the next flight, his truck slowly moves to the goal, and he himself plunges into the world of fear, cruelty and betrayal. Needless to say, for the Emirate public this picture became another close acquaintance with immigrants from the former USSR, who are simply Russians here for everyone.
P.S
Like all good things, the next Dubai Film Festival ended before it started. Seven days of the 7th international for many viewers, empathizing with all the heroes of the paintings shown, merged into one big, funny and sad, touching and cruel, instructive and thought-provoking movie marathon. It remains to be recalled that the 2010 DIFF festival was organized with the assistance of Dubai Studio City with the support of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Dubai Duty Free duty-free shops, Dubai Pearl, Emirates Airline and the hotel resort Madinat Jumeirah. And, of course, announce the list of winners and laureates of honorary awards of the festival.
The Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to film director Suleiman Kiss from Africa, distinguished Hollywood actor Sean Penn and Arab movie star Saban of Lebanese Egyptian origin. The best of the best, and their number was 36 paintings, the festival received awards in various nominations - for best directing, best male and female roles, best script, music, costumes and so on, as part of the Muhr Emirati, Arab and AsiaAfrica Awards. At the closing ceremony of the festival, along with actors and directors from all over the world, there were: the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as well as his sons - sheikhs Mansur bin Muhammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Said bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. In addition, a series of special awards were awarded at the end of the festival, including the FIPRESCI International Critics' Award, the Human Rights Award, the Audience Award from Damas and the new People Who Make DIFF Different award. ('People Who Make a DIFFerence'). Young journalists, covering all seven days of DIFF 2010, also received additional prizes.
We are far from young, and we did not get any prizes for journalism, however, we covered this long-loved cinema forum with no less pleasure. We hope that those who did not miss a single festival show also received a lot of joy and new experiences from the 7th international in Dubai. It remains to wait for what will please the future, already the 8th release of DIFF in 2011.
The first in the Muhr Arab contest shows were:
Best Short Film - Directed by Sabin El Shamaa “Un Mardi” (“Tuesday”) - Lebanon
Best documentary directed by Mahmoud Al Massad “HATHIHI SWRATI WA ANA MAYET” (“This is my picture when I was dead”) - Netherlands, USA, United Arab Emirates
Best Feature Film - Directed by George Hashimi “RSASSA TAYCHEH” (Random Bullet) - Lebanon
The highest awards Muhr AsiaAfrica received:
Best Short Film - directed by Nargiza Mamatkulova “SOIKO” (“Earrings”) - Kigrizstan
Best Documentary - Directed by Jia Jang-ke “HAI SHANG CHUAN QI” (“I would like to know”) - China
Best Feature Film - Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun “UN HOMME QUI CRIE” (“The Crying Man”) - France, Chad, Belgium
The best emirate paintings in Muhr Emirati's competitive shows were:
Special Prize - Director Walid Al Shekhhi with the film “REEH” (“Wind”) - UAE
Second place - director Khalid Al Mahmoud with the film “SABEEL” - UAE Special jury prize - director Nujum Algenem with the film “HAMAMA” - UAE
First Place - Director Neila Al Hajj with the film “MALAL” (“Boring”) - UAE
In preparing the article, materials from the official websites www.dubaiilmfest.com and www.nutcracker3d.com were used
