The 11th Dubai International Film Festival will open on 10th December with ‘The Theory of Everything’ – the Stephen Hawking biopic from Academy Award winning director James Marsh. Starring Eddie Redmayne as the renowned astrophysicist and Felicity Jones as his love, fellow student Jane Wilde, the extraordinary story follows the life of one of the world’s greatest living minds. The humorous and heartfelt musical ‘Into the Woods’ an international premiere will close the 11th edition of the Festival. Featuring an all star cast including Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine, the film blends classic stories from Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel. ‘Into the Woods’ is directed by acclaimed director Rob Marshall.
A total of 118 features, film shorts and documentaries are set to be screened over 8 days at this year’s edition; including 55 world and international premieres from 48 countries in 34 languages.
At the opening ceremony, DIFF will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Egyptian actor Nour El-Sherif, for his work on more than 100 films in a career that has spanned almost 5 decades.
A panel of directors will comprise the prestigious Muhr Awards jury. DIFF’s Muhr Feature competition jury will be headed up by Lee Daniels, the multi-talented producer and director of Oscar-winning ‘Precious’ and ‘The Butler’. He will be joined by Dutch cinematographer and film director Leonard Retel Helmrich, acclaimed Algerian director Malik Bensmail, Oscar nominated actress Virginia Madsen and Lebanese director and actress Nadine Labaki.
The Muhr Shorts and Emirati competition will be headed up by Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Khan. He will be joined by Palestinian director Cherien Dabis and Emirati screenwriter Mohammed Hassan Ahmed.
DIFF will feature numerous Red Carpet Gala screenings throughout the week. These screenings will kick off with ‘The Water Diviner’ – Russell Crowe’s anticipated directorial debut, on Thursday 11th December followed by ‘Dearest’, a deeply moving Chinese true-story drama from Peter Ho-sun Chan. Friday 12th will present a triple bill of galas beginning with ‘Paper Planes’ a touching family drama from Robert Connolly, followed by ‘Boychoir’ a crowd pleasing musical from François Girard starring Dustin Hoffman, and closing the day is ‘Dolphins’, from Emirati director Waleed Al Shehhi, which won the IWC Filmmaker Award (2013) after being supported by Enjaaz in cooperation with Watani and Filmi.
DIFF’s second Children’s Red Carpet Gala, ‘Santa Claus’ is a festive film for the whole family directed by Alexandre Coffre and begins proceedings on Saturday 13th. The evening gala’s start with ‘Escobar Paradise: Lost’ the directorial debut of Andrea Di Stefano starring Benicio del Toro and is followed by ‘The Sleeping Tree’, by Mohammed Rashed Buali, which was short-listed for the 2012 IWC Filmmaker Award and was supported by Enjaaz.
‘Out of the Ordinary’ – the latest feature that has got the film world talking from prolific Egyptian director Daoud Abdel Sayed – will screen on Sunday 14th. Monday 15th will enjoy two screenings: ‘Wild Tales’, from director Damián Szifrón, which has been selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film; and ‘Cairo Time’ from Amir Ramses, starring cinematic legend Nour El-Sherif who will this year be honoured with the DIFF Lifetime Achievement Award. The highly anticipated ‘The Imitation Game’ directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley showcases on Tuesday 16th.
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