The jury is in. Bollywood star and indie darling Irrfan Khan will lead one of the judging panels at this year’s Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF), organisers have announced. The actor will pick winners in the Narrative Features category, along with his team including Algerian novelist and academic Waciny Laredj, English writer-director Steven Shainberg, Australian film director Cate Shortland and Palestinian actor Ali Suliman.
Entries in the New Horizons section will be evaluated by Paris-based film producer Catherine Dussart, Syrian actor Bassel Al Khayat, Moroccan filmmaker Leila Kilani, Geneva-based Indian filmmaker Anup Singh and film critic Charles Tesson, the artistic director of Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival.
For Documentary features, the jury includes Brooklyn-based director and cinematographer Christina Voros, Moroccan filmmaker Daoud Aoulad Syad, documentary filmmaker Elyes Baccar from Tunisia, US-Egyptian filmmaker and cinematographer Sherief Al Katsha and video artist and documentary filmmaker Amar Kanwar, from India.
Other categories for awards include the Emirates Films Competition and Short Film Competition, the Child Protection award, FIPRESCI and Netpac awards.
The Emirates Film Competition (EFC) jury, which recognises the best talents from the UAE and GCC, will be headed by Moroccan screenwriter and director Farida Benlyazid. The team includes Saudi actor Ebrahim Al Hassawi, Qatari cultural advisor Fatima Al Remaihi, who is also the acting CEO of the Doha Film Institute, playwright and actor Abdullah Saleh, and Kurdish-Norwegian filmmaker Hisham Zaman.
Judges for the international Short Film Competition are Bahraini director and producer Bassam Al Thawadi, director Gustavo Taretto from Argentina, programmer and director Maike Mia Höhne from the Berlin International Film Festival, director Hala Lotfy from Egypt and filmmaker Alexandre Charlet from France.
Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, Faisal Al Shamari, the director of the UAE Ministry of the Interior Child Protection Centre, UAE media personality Heyam Al Juma, Egyptian actress Nelly Kareem and Italian audio-visual expert and lecturer Alessandra Priante will form the Child Protection Awards jury.
The Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) jury consists of Vietnamese director Dang Nhat Minh (president), US film journalist E. Nina Rothe and Dale Hudson, professor of Film and New Media at New York University of Abu Dhabi. The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) jury for ADFF 2014 will include journalists Kirill Razlogov from Russia, Subrahmanyan Viswanath from India, Rich Cline from Great Britain, Kais Kasim from Iraq and Tarek Al Shenawi from Egypt.
ADFF runs from October 23 to November 1. For full list of films and schedules, go to adff.ae
