Emirati filmmaker Layla Kaylif is $100,000 richer after receiving the prestigious IWC Filmmaker Award.
Layla Kaylif received the award at a gala dinner hosted by the Dubai International Film Festival and IWC Thursday evening. The financial prize included with the award will go to fund the production of her screenplay "The Letter Writer".
"I grew up in Dubai, and my father used to tell me tales about his childhood during the 1960s in Dubai – he was the inspiration for this story," Kaylif said upon receiving the award, according to The National .
“It’s about a young boy who is a professional letter-writer for people who are illiterate.”
Explaining her scrip in more detail, Kaylif added, "In my script, the boy falls in love with the object of one of his customer’s affections."
Her father accompanied her to the event and joked about himself being the inspiration for the script saying, "I thought I had forgotten that awful part of my life, and now she has rewritten it."
Kaylif has no previous background in filmmaking. Living between London and Dubai, she works as a professional singer and songwriter. This obviously didn't deter the judges from seeing the potential in her writing, however she described herself as "shocked and honored" to receive the award.
Also shortlisted for the prize were Qatari director Khalifa Al Muraikhi and Saudi director Shahad Ameen. DIFF chairman Abdulhamid Juma pointed out that two of the three shortlisted candidates were women, while also pointing out that the are 22 female Arab directors screening at the festival this year.
"The women are coming up with different thoughts and stories than male filmmakers, and you can see that in the scripts. Filmmaking is an emotional business – for creative people, the films are like their babies," Juma said. "Females have different insights into life and into themselves. It’s very interesting. We can learn from their experiences.”