What started with humble beginnings has turned into a respected, international-standard film festival – one that simultaneously showcases highly acclaimed international cinema, while simultaneously harnessing and also bolstering the UAE and the Arab world’s slow-blooming film industry. Today is the 10th anniversary of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), marking a full decade of consistent growth in scale, quality and range of films.
The festival will kick off its anniversary with Omar, by the Dutch-Palestinian director Hany Abu Assad, at Madinat Arena tonight at 7.30pm. “With so many fabulous international films coming, it’s quite a statement to turn around and say we’re opening with an Arab film,” says Shivani Pandya, DIFF’s managing director.
DIFF began in 2004 and was widely considered a success, having screened 76 features, retrospectives and short films. More than 13,000 people attended, with 30 screenings sold out. After it wrapped up, a DIFF official said he hoped the festival would “alter the face of popular cinema in the country” with distributors hinting that the public wanted to see more world cinema, art house films and documentaries on a regular basis.
Seven years later, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, opened the eighth festival joined by Tom Cruise. The Hollywood actor was there to promote the world premiere of his latest blockbuster, Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, a major coup for the festival. The film was also partially shot in Dubai.
Over the years, a cavalcade of international stars have walked the red carpet at DIFF, including Cate Blanchett, Freida Pinto, Colin Firth, Mahmoud Abdulaziz and Anil Kapoor, to name a few.
This year is set to be the biggest one for DIFF: there will be 174 films screened until December 14 – films in 43 languages from 57 countries and 11 international premieres. The festival received 60 per cent more submissions (3,500 from 143 countries) for its Muhr Awards than it did last year, with more than US$575,000 (Dh2.1 million) being awarded to Emirati, Arab and Asia-Africa categories. With hundreds of filmmakers in attendance, DIFF is clearly an important platform for regional aspiring filmmakers to showcase their work and meet fellow industry insiders. There will be members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, including former Academy president and producer Sid Ganis, taking part in a panel discussion and giving masterclasses. Blanchett will return to head the IWC Filmmaker Award panel. The actors Naomie Harris and Abigail Breslin will make appearances and Martin Sheen will receive a lifetime achievement award.
Long an established market for foreign films, the UAE has seen a gradual increase in locally produced films. Emiratis and other Arabs have become more involved in every aspect of the craft, from writing to directing. Looking at the market, it seems a natural progression. While Hollywood, Bollywood and Egyptian films have long been widely screened in the UAE, the local market has grown to a point where it now seems more viable to produce UAE-driven content for a UAE audience.
Pandya says she is thrilled that 40 per cent of DIFF’s 100-plus Arab films are directed by women. “We really tried to focus on the coming-of-age of Arab cinema. One of our merits has always been to try to showcase Arab cinema to the world – not only attracting people to come to Dubai. Only a few years back, there were about 12 to 15 Arab films showcased in the programme. Today, we have supported 243 projects ourselves.”
DIFF‘s Enjaaz programme awards up to $100,000 (Dh367,000) towards post-production costs for Arab filmmakers. It has helped 84 film projects so far, including 50 feature films. Eighteen new Enjaaz-backed films will be screened at this year’s festival alone.
Pandya says one of the scheme’s biggest success stories is that of Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female Saudi Arabian director. Her film Wadjda won the Best Film award in the Muhr Arab Feature competition and was nominated this year as Saudi Arabia’s submission to the Academy Awards.
“We will continue to offer support because we believe there’s never enough. Over the last few years we have really established ourselves – some studies do put us as a destination festival. We’re on their radar and that’s really exciting. We get offered fabulous films left, right and centre.”
Waleed Al-Shehhi, a 38-year-old filmmaker from Ras Al Khaimah, has been making short films for almost 15 years. Al-Shehhi has also been involved with the Emirates Writers Union for a decade, and pioneered an applied media programme at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Ras Al Khaimah. He says he is part of one of the first generations of Emirati filmmakers.
“Before us there were no competitions, no film festivals, and that’s why there were just a few cases – like Masoud Amralla. But when he started the Emirates Film Competition in Abu Dhabi back in 2001, all of my generation of filmmakers came along and started making films.”
Eight of Al-Shehhi’s short films have won awards across the globe. His film Aushba’s Well was screened at DIFF’s first session, and he even won the Silver Muhr Arab Award for his film The Water Guard in 2007, earning a handsome Dh75,000.
“They have a lot of different initiatives that take our films to be shown in different festivals around the world and that, by itself, is really good exposure for our work. We’ve started to see some funding coming to filmmakers in the region, not only in the UAE, and that gives us better chances for making better production and films.”
However, he says the world’s leading cinema industries often benefit from large local populations, which the UAE does not have. This, he adds, makes it hard to find funding for big-budget feature films.
“So how can we make it happen? Just work on low-budget films. You might or might not cover the cost, but you will easily be able to find sponsors who are willing to fund the film, not looking to get any money back but in the name of the country, or in the name of the art. But if you would like to make money go to the commercial market; it’s a big market and that’s what subsidises our work.”
Al-Shehhi says cinemas should be playing a more supportive role for the sake of UAE filmmaking.
“The UAE is considered the biggest cinema market in the Middle East. We are seeking their support and help showing our films in the theatres of the UAE because this is the most difficult part of producing a film. You produce the film, you spend the money and then you face such difficult competition from Hollywood and all those other countries when you try to enter the theatres.”
The Lebanese filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour has found a way to balance both financial and creative success following the commercial route. Aged 34, he grew up in the UAE and made his first film when he was 16. He makes corporate films and government messaging for Abu Dhabi, and then takes time off for his own projects. His latest documentary, Champ of the Camp, about a Bollywood singing competition among UAE workers, will have its world premiere at DIFF on Saturday. He says it is the first feature film produced inside UAE labour camps.
“We were really keen on getting an important world premiere and decided that DIFF would be the most suitable place among any festival on Earth to do that. It’s grown to be a robust and powerful film festival not only with audiences, but with industry members from around the world. And our film’s story is set in Dubai, so we wanted to have what is called a home premiere; a world premiere that is in the home country of the story.”
Kaabour’s first film, Being Osama, a documentary about the impact of 9/11 on the lives of six men called Osama, was screened at DIFF’s second edition in 2005. “The success with which the film was met at DIFF actually inspired me to move back here permanently and bring my trade here. Since then I’ve been attending the festival yearly. With Champ of the Camp having its world premiere with them this year, it’s some sort of comeback for me. It’s a return to a festival that I’ve seen evolve over many years.”
He says DIFF has had a profound impact on the UAE and regional audiences. “Up until DIFF came to be, this part of the world had no access to independent cinema, or world cinema for that matter. Up until that point, people were simply watching blockbusters at the megaplexes in the shopping malls. Even during the first few years of DIFF, the week or so during which it used to take place used to be the only portal that people had to see international cinema.
“It was only a few years ago that the programming at the megaplexes started including a few independent titles here and there and a few art galleries and different events started showing world cinema as well. So there is no doubt that DIFF is credited for bringing international cinema for the international community that lives in this part of the world.”
[ halbustani@thenational.ae ]
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