The 11 th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) took place from 10 to 17 December 2014 at Burj Al-Arab. The festival screened 118 films in total, including a great selection of features, shorts and documentaries from 48 countries in 34 languages. DIFF stole the scene with 55 world premieres.
With a festival that pushed boundaries last year in celebration of its 10 th year, critics found this year to be “quieter”, even though the screened films retained the same high quality. This year, DIFF was inaugurated with the Middle East premiere of The Theory of Everything which depicts the early life of Stephen Hawking and his love affair with his first wife Jane. On the closing night, Into The Woods, the musical fantasy released across the U.S. on Christmas Day, was the festival’s finale.
On the final day, 12 films were awarded the Muhr Award, with several female filmmakers shining in the festival’s spotlight. This gave this year's edition the very fitting label of: the ‘ Year of the Woman ’. Among the female winners is director Khadija Al Salami for her celebrated film I Am Nujoom, Age 10 and Divorced earning her the $54,000 grand prize as the Best Muhr Feature. Another Emirati success was Aisha Al Zaabi who was awarded the Best Muhr Emirati Film prize worth $13,000 for her debut feature The Other Dimension .
The Best Actress Award went to Egyptian Yasmine Raees for Fatat El Masnaa (Factory Girl), while Best Actor was picked up by Hassan Badida from Morocco for his role in for C'est Eux Les Chiens . Other awards were handed out that night, with the Ministry of Interior Cinema Award going to Saeed Salmeen Al Murry for Going to Heaven, in addition to the IWC Filmmaker Award worth $100,000 which was awarded to Abdullah Boushahri for his project The Water .
Although this year’s festival didn’t’ feature as many works from the MENA region as previous years, it was host to several programs that aim at incubating the rising independent Arab film industry. One of these programs is the Enjaaz Programme which is the Festival’s production and post-production support arm and is part of the Dubai Film Market. This year alone, 17 filmmakers received the program’s production and post-production fund with I Am Nujoom age 10 and Divorced and Dolphins being two of the most celebrated participating films of this year’s edition. DIFF also honored the legends of Arab and World cinema and the Lifetime Achievement award was presented to India’s best-known female playback singers, Asha Bhosle as well Egypt's revered acting talent, Nour El-Sherif.
DIFF also led a unique international fundraising initiative with Eva Longoria raising over $400,000 on 14 December 2014 during t he Global Gift Gala . Among the auctioned items were a 36 km trip into space by zero2infinity (auctioned for $85,000), and a handmade two million Swarovski crystal dress by Ali (auctioned for $45,000).
Among the key guests were Emily Blunt who headed the jury for the IWC Filmmaker award, as well as Lee Daniels who made a remarkable appearance on Tuesday in full Arab robes, confessing that "I'm that arrogant American that thinks they know everything. And coming here proves that I'm arrogant. I don't know it all."
Now that the 11 th edition of DIFF has come to a close, it's worth adding some cinematic gems from the Arab world to your "must watch" list.