The Hindu
Dubai, Nov 28: An eight-day international film festival will begin here on December 9, which will present the best of Indian, Arab and international cinema.
Feature, shorts and documentary films of internationally reputed directors will be shown in the festival.
The 'Cinema of Asia' segment will include films from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh while Indian cinema will have its own programming segment.
Building on the success of last year, DIFF 2007 will host the Muhr Awards and the industry office with new features.
Festival chairman Abdulhamid Juma told a press conference here on Tuesday that this year 141 films from 52 countries, many of them from the Arab world, would be screened.
"We have made numerous improvements for our fourth edition that will take us further in our mission to celebrate excellence in cinema and to nurture and develop local and international talent while also add value to culture and the arts in Dubai and the UAE," he said.
Shivani Pandya, DIFF's Managing Director, said "DIFF will be visibly larger and more vibrant than ever before this year, thanks to the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and a very dedicated team from all over the world".
For the first time, festival guests will be able to exercise their vote in the People's Choice Awards, which will honour festival favourites in the feature, short and documentary categories.
Following each screening, viewers will receive a ballot on which they can rate the film they have just seen.
The festival will add the results, and winning filmmakers will receive a People's Choice Award trophy in recognition of DIFF audience members' appreciation.
Continuing to develop DIFF's educational mandate, DIFF 2007 will also screen one-minute videos by adolescents who participated in three recent workshops in Mumbai, Cairo and Dubai in partnership with UNICEF.
This international programme seeks to give young people the tools and space to express themselves on issues of relevance to adolescents globally, such as self-esteem, world peace and tolerance, and the videos are windows into their worlds.