Luc Besson’s The Lady to close Third annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival

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The 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival’s (DTFF) announced today that Luc Besson’s The Lady is the closing night film for the five-day Festival (October 25-29) along with the Contemporary World Cinema programme.

Starring Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, William Hope and Sahajak Boonthanakit, The Lady is an epic biopic depicting the real life love story of Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s marriage to writer-academic, Michael Aris, as she fights against governmental oppression to instill democracy into Burma’s political system.{jathumbnail off}

Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2010 Winners

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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.

The First Grader and Grandma, A Thousand Times won the Audience Awards for Best Narrative Film and Best Documentary Film. The prize for Best Arab Short Film went to Sirwar Zirkly’s Missing.

Mahmoud Kaabour, director of Grandma, A Thousand Times also received a Special Jury Mention in the Arab Film Competition for his film, a heartfelt celebration of family ties. The jury prizes were the first ones ever handed out at DTFF, which launched in 2009.

H.E. Sheikh Mohammed bin Fahad Al-Thani, Chairman of the DFI Festival Board, DFI Executive Director Amanda Palmer, Managing Director Maggie Kim, DFI Head of Education and Programmer Scandar Copti, DFI programmers Hania Mroue and Chadi Zeneddine, Jury President and legendary Egyptian actress Yosra, Tribeca Enterprises co-founders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, and Chief Creative Officer Geoffrey Gilmore attended the Closing Night Gala.  The First Grader director Justin Chadwick attended with stars Naomie Harris, Oliver Litondo and producers David M. Thompson, Penny Wolf, Richard Harding, Anant Singh and Sam Feuer.

A host of other luminaries and filmmakers were in attendance including Bosnian director/screenwriter and jury member Danis Tanovic, Indian director and jury member Bhavna Talwar, actor/writer/director and jury member Nick Moran, Arab star Adel Imam, American/Egyptian director and comedian Ahmed Ahmed, Certified Copy star William Shimell, Secretariat director Randall Wallace, acclaimed composer Nitin Sawhney, Palestinian actress Yasmine Al Massri. and Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat.

The two Arab film competition winners each received $100,000 (USD) and Audience Award winners received prize monies of $100,000 (USD) each. The five-member DTFF jury consisted of Yosra, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nick Moran, Bavna Talwar, Danis Tanovic.  The jury for the Arab Short Film Competition was comprised of filmmakers from the Arab Film Competition.  The award for Best Arab Short Film received $10,000 (USD).

As part of the DTFF’s partnership with the Giffoni Experience, an international exchange of kids’ ideas and film experiences, 60 local Doha children became jurors of a carefully curated film selection.  The jury who worked with six other international jurors awarded prizes to two short films -  Pictogram Story, an offbeat animated love story and Transit, the story of a 10 year old boy who on his return journey home from holiday stumbles across a mysterious and desperate man at the airport who transforms his life forever.

Amanda Palmer, Executive Director of DFI said: “This year’s DTFF has provided a fantastic showcase for our Arab and international filmmakers and I’d like to congratulate all of this year’s prize winners and thank our jury for their careful deliberation. The array of films we’ve screened over the past five days span the personal to the epic, and we’ve seen films that engage, entertain and touch us by using the simple skills of storytelling.  Over the past year we’ve worked hard at DFI to grow our film festival and incorporate more films- and more incredible events into this year’s programme. From Family Day to TEDxDoha, to World Premieres and successful community Outdoor Screenings, the past five days have been packed with inspiring events and unique experiences. This is a fantastic moment for Qatar. We’re glad our local community has supported this year’s Festival with such enthusiasm and we look forward to building on this for next year.”

“We congratulate the winners of our first Arab Film Competition and  Arab Short Competition and salute all of the wonderful filmmakers at this year’s Festival,” said Scandar Copti. “The Doha Tribeca Film Festival stands for storytelling rooted in our region and creating opportunity for Arab filmmakers to excel in the realm of filmmaking. This year’s Festival has allowed us to build on our founding goals to support and activate the community to provide educational resources for our young feature and short filmmakers and all those that love everything about film.”

Said Maggie Kim, Managing Director, DFI and DTFF: ”This Festival’s many different elements have helped it forge a real connection with this community, as the attendance figures show. Everything from panels to industry events to Family Day and Outdoor Screenings at Katara Open Air Theater have combined to create an important film hub. We’re proud to be contributing to the cultural life of Doha and look forward to a bright future in this community for DTFF and the year-round activities of DFI.”

Jury President Yosra added: “It was a great honor and pleasure to be the first jury president at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, working with such unique jurors. The past five days were hard work for myself and fellow jurors, Salma, Nick, Danis, Bhavna. They were all outstanding.  Making friends in life is very difficult but I made wonderful friends in just a few days. I also thank all those who have worked on the Doha Tribeca Film Festival to make it such a great success.”

Said Geoffrey Gilmore, Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises: "The Festival took a giant step forward this year with a film program that has brought together a wide range of perspectives and filmmaking approaches, as demonstrated by our Audience Award winners The First Grader and Grandma, A Thousand Times. Like many of our films, the winners skillfully provoke thought and emotion, and their wholly original stories help bridge diverse cultures. DTFF is now not only a destination festival in this region but also a spectacular platform for Arab and international cinema.”

The second Doha Tribeca Film Festival was held October 26-October 30 2010, and featured a diverse selection of 51 feature films from the Middle East and 35 countries around the world.  The roster of celebrities and notables who were in town for DTFF included Robert De Niro, Salma Hayek Pinault, Kevin Spacey, Freida Pinto, Mira Nair, Paula Wagner, Reem Acra, Nitin Sawhney, Najwa Najjar, Harvey Weinstein, Julian Schnabel, Randall Wallace, Andrew McCarthy, opening night film director Rachid Bouchareb (Outside the Law), Yasmine Al Massri, Adel Imam, Rula Jebreal, Alexander Siddig, Carmen Lebbos and Peter Webber,  and globally renowned French photographer Brigitte Lacombe and filmmaker Marian Lacombe. . .

The festival held numerous free public community screenings and frequently sold out events. Outstanding attendance was exemplified by a Family Day which attracted thousands..

>Arab Film Competition: Best Arab Filmmaker

Balls (Farsan), directed by Josef Fares, screenwriters Josef Fares, Torkel Petersson.  (Sweden) - Feature Narrative

Middle Eastern earthiness meets Scandinavian sweetness in this comedy by acclaimed Lebanese-Swedish director Josef Fares, whose half-dozen films over the past decade have been international festival favorites. In his latest cinematic culture clash, Fares features his actual father as a lonely widower slowly making his way back onto the dating scene, with amusing, endearing results.

Cast: Torkel Petersson, Jan Fares, Hamadi Khemiri, Juan Rodriguez, Anita Wall, Nina Zanjani, Jessica Forsberg

Arab Film Competition: Best Arab Film

Hawi, directed and written by Ibrahim El Batout.  (Egypt, Qatar) - Feature NarrativeA prisoner is released on a mission to retrieve a set of documents. A man roams the city streets towing his sickly horse behind him. A group of songwriters gathers to compose. In this portrait of modern Alexandria, themes of human loss and displacement take center stage in place of a clearly defined story arc.

Cast: Hanan Youssef, Sherif El Dessouki, Mohamed El Sayed, Fady Iskandar, Rina Aref, Massar Egbary Band

Arab Film Competition: Special Jury Mention

Audience Award: Best Documentary

Grandma, A Thousand Times (Teta, Alf Marra), directed by Mahmoud Kaabour.  (UAE, Qatar, Lebanon) - Feature Documentary

This personal documentary puts a feisty Beiruti grandmother at the center of brave film exercises designed to commemorate her many worlds. With great intimacy, the film documents her larger-than-life character as she struggles to cope with the silence of her once-buzzing house and imagines what awaits her beyond death.

Featuring: Teta Fatima Kaabour

Audience Award: Best Narrative

The First Grader, directed by Justin Chadwick, screenwriter Ann Peacock.  (U.K.) - Feature Narrative

The inspirational story about an elderly farmer in a Kenyan village who wants to enroll in a local school and learn to read, this charming film features an outstanding performance by Naomie Harris as a skeptical teacher as well as Oliver Litondo as the octogenarian student.

Cast: Naomie Harris, Oliver Musila Litondo

Best Arab Short Film

Missing (Khaberni Ya Taer), directed by Sirwar Zirkly.  (Syria)

A TV show called "Missing" is tasked with finding a viewer's sister, but when she is discovered the brother kills her live on the air. This Arabic drama with English subtitles packs a strong message in little more than 16 minutes.

via press release

Competition Jury Announced Plus Eight New Titles Added To Doha Tribeca Film Festival

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The Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) today announced that internationally acclaimed Egyptian actress Yosra has been appointed President of the Jury for the 2nd annual Festival, October 26 – 30, 2010.

Yosra replaces previously announced Jury President Hany Abu-Assad who has had to step back from his role due to a delay in production with his latest film, The Courier, currently shooting on location in Louisiana.

Yosra will be joined by four other outstanding and diverse members of the film industry who comprise the inaugural jury –  prolific Academy Award nominated actress, producer and director Salma Hayek Pinault (Frida, Ugly Betty), English actor, writer, and director Nick Moran (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels),Indian director Bhavna Talwar (Dharm) and Bosnian  screenwriter and film director of the Academy Award winning No Man’s Land, Danis Tanovic. Together they will choose the winners of the Festival’s Arab Film Competition: Best Arab Film and Best Arab Filmmaker who will each receive monetary awards of US$100,000.

Additionally, the festival has also added seven more feature films to its programme - including Andrew Lau’s Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, John Curran’s Stone starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, Machete starring Jessica Alba, Danny Trejo and Don Johnson, Casino Jack starring Kevin Spacey and a special IMAX presentation of Paranormal Activity 2.

Two previously unannounced Indian films Rakht Charitra by Ramgopal Verma and Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan will also have their Qatar premiere at the festival and one new title, Champs Elysees Je t’aime, has been added to the Arab Short Film Competition.   Tickets for all films at DTFF are on sale at box offices located at the City Center Cinema and the Villaggio Cinemas.

Yosra said: “I’m honoured to be the first Jury President of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, and I want to thank my fellow jurors Salma, Nick, Danis and Bhavna for joining me. It’s a great privilege for me to work with them and I hope that together, we can fulfill the expectations of the filmmakers, and can contribute towards highlighting the Arab Cinema and further encouraging the talent from the region.”

DFI Executive Director Amanda Palmer said: “We are delighted Yosra is joining us in Doha as our first Jury President for DTFF's first Arab Film Competition. Yosra supported us immensely in our first year as a festival, and in our second year it's an honour to welcome this cinematic icon to preside over an international jury. This jury, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nick Moran, Danis Tanovic, and Bhavna Talwar, truly understand and reflect Doha's mission to support new talent in the region, they have the right sensibilities, perspectives and expertise, and we're looking forward to introducing them to a new generation of talent here in the Middle East.”

ABOUT THE DTFF 2010 JURY

Yosra is one of the major cinema figures in the Arab world. Having held the lead roles in numerous films, she has been granted over fifty cinema awards. She has also starred in highly popular serial television dramas and released an album as a singer. Yosra represented the Egyptian actors to discuss potential improvements of their professional conditions with President Mubarak. As a UNDP good will ambassador, she actively fights against human trafficking, poverty and child abuse. She also supports street children, as well as various educational and environmental causes.

Academy Award nominated actress Salma Hayek Pinault has proven herself as a prolific actress, producer, director, and activist. She received an Academy Award Nomination, a Golden Globe Nomination, a SAG Nomination, and a BAFTA Nomination for Best Actress for the title role in Julie Taymor's Frida. She produced the highly successful series Ugly Betty for American television and won an Emmy for her directorial debut, The Maldinado Miracle. Hayek continues to support, educate and fight for such causes as life-threatening maternal and neonatal tetanus; domestic violence education, awareness and prevention; as well as various humanitarian and environmental causes.

Forced to stop his university studies during the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, Bosnian film director and screenwriter Danis Tanovic went on a dangerous two-year mission to follow the Army closely with a camera crew to produce documentary footage. Tanovic’s first narrative feature, No Man’s Land, won a total of 42 awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2001, the European Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002.

As an actor Nick Moran made his name with roles in hit films such as Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. In 2008, Moran marked his directorial debut with Telstar, the story of songwriter and music producer Joe Meek which he co-wrote and directed for both stage and screen. The Kid, his second feature film as a director, screens at this year’s Doha Tribeca Film Festival.

Bhavna Talwar, the renowned and critically acclaimed National Award winning director, is amongst the new breed of Indian directors, blending Indian storytelling and sensitivity with Western technique and style. A Gucci Group Award Nominee at Venice, Bhavna's debut film, Dharm, has received raving reviews from critics and the media alike, and was chosen as the closing film at the World Cinema Section at the Cannes Film Festival 2007.

A list of the additional titles in the lineup for the 2010 Doha Tribeca Film Festival follows:

WORLD PANORAMA

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, directed by Andrew Lau, screenwriters Cheung Chi Sing, Gordon Chan, Lui Koon Nam, Frankie Tam. (Hong Kong, China) – Feature Narrative

Donnie Yen continues a role originally played by legendary Bruce Lee in the 1972 film "Fist of Fury" and later adapted for a 1995 TV series which starred Yen. In this quasi-sequel, set in mid-century Shanghai, the martial arts hero infiltrates a Triad gang and becomes a caped crusader that features dazzling sets and amazing martial art fighting scenes.

Cast: Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong, Huang Bo

Machete, directed by Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis, screenwriters Robert Rodriguez, Alvaro Rodriguez. (USA) – Feature Narrative

Left for dead after clashing with notorious Mexican drug kingpin Torrez, legendary ex-federale Machete has escaped to Texas, looking to disappear and forget his tragic past. But what he finds is a web of corruption and deceit that leaves a bullet in Senator McLaughlin and Machete a wanted man. From director Robert Rodriguez and co-directed by Ethan Maniquis, Machete features Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Segal, Don Johnson and Robert De Niro.

Stone, directed by John Curran, screenwriter Angus MacLachlan. (USA) – Feature Narrative

Robert De Niro and Edward Norton reunite in this intense drama that follows a convicted arsonist (Norton) about to be released from prison. When Norton's wife (Milla Jovovich) attempts to seduce his veteran corrections officer Jack Mabry(De Niro) to expedite his release, Jack's life is turned upside down.

Udaan ,directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, screenwriters Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag Kashyap. (India) – Feature Narrative

Vikramaditya Motwane's debut feature, "Udaan", is the story of Rohan, a teenager who returns home after eight years of boarding school to find himself closeted with an authoritarian father and a younger half-brother who he didn't even know existed. Rohan strives to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.

Cast: Ronit Roy, Ram Kapoor, Manjot Singh, Anand Tiwari, Rajat Barmech

SPECIAL SCREENING

Casino Jack, directed by George Hickenlooper, written by Norman Snider. (Canada) – Feature Narrative.

Kevin Spacey gives a stellar performance as high powered GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a veteran schemer who shot to success, then crashed and burned in the George W. Bush era - creating one of the biggest scandals to hit Washington in recent years. Balancing both fact and fiction Director George Hickenlooper creates a wild and humorous ride along the underbelly of American politics.

Paranormal Activity 2, directed by Tod Williams, screenwriters Michael R. Perry, Oren Peli. (USA) – Feature Narrative

Join us for a special IMAX screening of the highly anticipated new film Paranormal Activity 2. Following in the tradition of such great horror classics as “The Exorcist” and “The Blair Witch Project,” audiences will be scared and transfixed by this latest addition to the genre. Sure to be one of the fall’s most exciting releases, director Tod Williams’ “Paranormal Activity 2” follows a young couple disturbed by a presence in their home that may or may not be demonic. The movie’s visual style adds an additional level of menace to the film, and is a perfect complement to the terrifying nature of the narrative. Starring Kate Featherston as the tormented young heroine, you will not want to miss a sneak peek of this thrilling and frightening new film!

Rakht Charitra, directed by Ram Gopal Varma, screenwriter Prashant Pandey. (India) – Feature Narrative

This film tackles the many conspiracy theories swirling around the 2005 murder of Paritala Ravi, the ruthless, powerful Indian politician who started as a communist like his father but soon joined the populist Telugu Desam Party. Made in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, the crime epic is both blood-chilling and bloody.

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Surya, Priyamani, Shatrughan Sinha, Radhika Apte, Kota Srinivasan Rao, Tanikella Bharani, Ashish Vidhyarthi, Zarina Wahab



ARAB SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Champs Elysees Je t’aime (Champs Elysees, I love you), directed and written by Mahdi Ali Ali. (Qatar, France) – Short Narrative

A female college student from the Gulf currently residing in the romantic French capital must make a decision: should she passively surrender to the traditional expectations of her family's pre-arranged marriage plans, or should she open her life to true love in Europe?

Cast:  Samir Talhaaoui, Gania Latroch