Science and fantasy will clash at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival (Diff) when the eight-day annual event opens on December 10 with a biopic of Stephen Hawking, considered one of the world’s greatest living minds.
The Theory of Everything is a film by Oscar-winning director James Marsh based on a memoir by the scientist’s first wife Jane Wilde Hawking. Starring British actor Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and Felicity Jones as his wife, the film follows the couple’s love story, Hawking’s struggle with motor neuron disease, his success with physics and the eventual disintegration of their marriage.
“Theory of Everything is a beautiful film on the human side and intellectual side, and also for the character who is still alive, Stephen Hawking, living among us… It has a lesson for everyone. We feel strongly that this film is really going to be appreciated by the public,” said Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Diff artistic director, at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
Festival chairman Abdul Hamid Juma said they keep all kinds of potential audience members in mind when choosing the opening night film.
“We think of weird things, like, let’s say somebody has to be there by force — or he had to go there because of his wife. We think of this person. And then, when they see the film, they say: ‘You know what? I like that, so I might and see other films in the festival’,” he said.
On December 17, one of the year’s most-awaited films, Into the Woods, will close the festival. The film, blending classic fairytale stories from Cinderella to Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood, has an all-star cast led by Meryl Streep with Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, James Corden, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine. Oscar-winner Rob Marshall, best known for the film Chicago, directs.
Juma says that the film was chosen because it met the high criteria for the coveted slot.
“We’ve been very lucky in the past eight years. We’ve had great closing films. Don’t forget, we’ve had films like Avatar and Slumdog Millionaire,” he said.
Blunt will also he head of the jury for the $100,000 IWC Filmmaker Award, to be presented on December 11.
Iconic Egyptian actor Nour Al Sherif will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award a day earlier on the opening night.
“We have a collection of names we believe have reached the time to be honoured, and Nour Al Sherif’s name has been there perhaps from the first year of the festival,” said Juma. He added that they had not honoured him earlier due to the actor’s conflicting schedule.
A total of 118 features, film shorts and documentaries will be screened during the festival, including 44 world premieres and 11 international premieres from 48 countries in 34 languages.
Speaking of the fact that the number of films at this year’s festival has decreased from last year, Juma said it all comes down to the filmmakers and the films being put forward, not the festival itself. And addressing rumours, as well as an article in Variety that suggested Diff may be on its way out, Juma denied any such claims. “No funding issues. The whole issue of this Dubai stopping or changing, it comes down to [the fact] that one decade has passed. We have to have a roadmap of where we’re taking this festival,” he said. We’re going to focus on Arab films and on distribution.”
Juma added that their budget has been approved for the next five years. “Variety can write whatever they want, it’s a free press. But sometimes [you have to] get the news from the source,” he said.
A filmmaker at the press conference whose film did not receive approval from Diff questioned Juma on whether or not there was an aversion to political films, which touch on current issues such as the plight of Syrian refugees.
“Last year we did a gala raising funds for refugees in Syria. All our hearts are with Syria. However, we’re not a film fund. Out of 100 films, we choose maybe 15,” Juma said.
This year’s Muhr Feature (Fiction and Non Fiction) competition jury will be headed up by Lee Daniels, the producer and director of Oscar-winning films Precious and The Butler. He will be joined by Dutch cinematographer and film director Leonard Retel Helmrich, Algerian director Malik Bensmail, Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen and Lebanese actress and director Nadine Labaki.
The Muhr Shorts and Emirati competition will be headed up by another Egyptian filmmaker Mohammad Khan, one of the country’s most respected directors. He will be joined by Palestine’s Cherien Dabis and Emirati filmmaker Mohammad Hassan Ahmad.
Films will be shown at Vox Cinemas at the Mall of the Emirates, while red carpet screenings will be held at the purpose-built venue at the Madinat Arena.
This year’s red carpet screenings include The Water Diviner, actor Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, on December 11, followed by Dearest, a Chinese true-story drama from Peter Ho-sun Chan.
December 12 will see a triple bill of galas beginning with Paper Planes, a family drama by Robert Connolly, followed by Boychoir a crowd pleasing musical from Francois Girard starring Dustin Hoffman and Dolphins, by Emirati director Waleed Al Shehhi, which won the IWC Filmmaker Award last year. Dolphins will also close the day.
The next day, December 13, will see the Children’s Red Carpet Gala with Santa Claus by Alexandre Coffre screened during the day. The evening gala starts with Escobar Paradise: Lost the directorial debut of Andrea Di Stefano starring Benicio del Toro, followed by The Sleeping Tree, by Mohammad Rashed Buali, which was short-listed for the 2012 IWC Filmmaker Award and was supported by Diff’s funding programme Enjaaz.
Out of the Ordinary, by Egyptian director Daoud Abdul Sayed, will be screened on December 14.
On Monday, December 15, two screenings will be held, starting with Wild Tales, from director Damian Szifron, which has been selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film. This will be followed by Cairo Time from director Amir Ramses and starring Al Sherif, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s The Imitation Game, also starring Keira Knightley, directed by Morten Tyldum, will be screened on December 16.
The Diff box office will be opened from November 28 at Vox Cinemas at Mall of the Emirates and on dubaifilmfest.com. The Madinat Theatre at Souk Madinat Jumeirah will start selling tickets from December 10.
Diff will run from December 10 to 17. The dedicated Diff customer care number is 04-363 FILM (3456). For the full schedule, go to dubaifilmfest.com.
