Film Festival Essentials: What’s on Friday October 19

The major event of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the gala ceremony for the presentation of the Black Pearl Awards, takes place in front of an all-star audience at Emirates Palace tonight.  The ceremony, which includes the presentation of Lifetime Achievement Award to two of the most glamourous and accomplished actresses working in the world today, will be preceded by a bumper red carpet featuring cast and crew members of more than 20 films, representatives of the Festival juries and a host of VIP guests.

Egypt's Sawsun Badr and Tunisian-born Claudia Cardinale will be the guests of honour at the prestigious event. The two internationally acclaimed actresses will be honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards during the ceremony.

VIP Guests you can look forward to seeing on the red carpet include actors Abdulaziz Jassem,
Ali Al Ghourair, Bassam Al Thuwadi, Daoud Hussein, Ibrabim Al Sallal, Ibrahim Al Hasawi, Mohamed Mansour, Salah Al Mullah, Zahra Al Kharji, Fareed Ramadan, Mukdad Abdel Rida, and Rafic Ali Ahmad. Crews wishing to film the red carpet must book a place by 11:00 and be set up by 18:30.

Before the ceremony takes place, the public still has a chance to see films screening in competition. First-time Director Benh Zeitlin will attend the screening of his New Horizons competition film, Beasts Of The Southern Wild. Also screening in New Horizons are Ruby Sparks, I.D. and A HIJACKING.

Three films, one from each of our special programs screen today. In the Algerian programme, Ahmed Rachedi's classic film about resistance fighters The Opium And The Baton (1969) is screening. In the Korean program The Good the Bad and the Weird (2008) a rollicking adaptation of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western from Kim Jee-Won. And you can also see on the big screen, for the first time, a beautiful, digitally restored print of David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The screening marks 50 years since the film's release.

Two films in the Documentary competition screen today: Cursed Be the Phosphate, Sam Tlili's film about an uprising in the phosphate-rich Gafsa region that took place three years before Ben Ali's government was toppled, and The House i Live in, Eugene Jarecki's searing documentary about the failure of the USA's 'war on drugs'.

In the Narrative competition, see Lore, Australian Director Cate Shortland's sensual film about the coming-of-age of the daughter of Gestapo agents in post-war Germany, and Rachid Banhadj's film Perfumes of Algiers.

Media representatives still have the opportunity to conduct interviews with delegations from several films.  Please check the press schedule for details.

This is the first year the Abu Dhabi Film Festival has been presented under the management of TwoFour54, as part of the plan to strategically align the festival alongside Abu Dhabi's other media initiatives and related events, reinforcing Abu Dhabi as the creative hub for the region supporting film production.