7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival

The 7th Abu Dhabi Film Festival offered a great variety of programming. There was a Narrative Feature Competition with international productions, among which were films from the Philippines, Bosnia, Egypt, Algeria and France; co-productions with the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar; and the latest films by Philippe Garrel, Kelly Reichardt and Stephen Frears. The New Horizons section presented a director’s first or second feature film. There was also a Documentary Feature Competition and a Short Film Competition with a special programme of short films from the United Arab Emirates and GCC countries. More than US $800,000 was available to the juries for the Black Pearl Awards.

A country which doesn’t have an established tradition in cinema and which didn’t even know movie theatres has discovered film. In the great theatre at the Emirates Palace and before the eight screens of the cinemas VOX at the Marina Mall an attentive and interested audience followed the stories told by international pictures. The motto in Abu Dhabi: Let’s celebrate film!

The audience’s look was dominated by the white of bearded men wearing the kandura and the black of women’s abayas. The cool air-conditioned cinemas were well attended; outside the sun was shining and providing temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius. (Wilfried Reichart)

Abu Dhabi Film Festival: www.abudhabifilmfestival.ae