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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.
Contact thePress Team