All articles by Antonia Carver
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News
In focus - Will war films win in the gulf'
The Middle East is having its 'Vietnam moment', in celluloid terms at least: the slew of Iraq- and terrorism-themed films coming out of Hollywood is drawing comparisons with the rash of war pictures in the late 1970s.'In The Valley Of Elah, and others like it, are a reaction to 9/11 ...
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News
Sundance picks seven projects for Middle East Writers Lab
The Sundance Institute has announced the selection of seven projects for the third annual Middle East Screenwriters Lab, which takes place in Jordan Oct 28-Nov 1. Run in collaboration with Jordan's Royal Film Commission, the Lab involves the upcoming directors and writers taking part in an intensive workshop with 'creative ...
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News
Ben X takes grand jury prize at first Abu Dhabi festival
The inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) came to an end Friday evening with a lengthy awards ceremony and the screening of Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah. The Black Pearl Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film went to Nic Balthazar's Ben X, presented ...
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Features
A good news day
The Egyptian film industry is ruled by a clutch of players that typically act as producers, distributors and exhibitors, churning out comedies that dominate the local box office. Adel Adeeb, managing director of indie Good News Group, can add a fourth arm - directing - to the list. He is ...
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News
Al Shaibani and Al Muhairi take Emirates awards in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi's Middle East International Film Festival (Oct 14-19) today announced the winners of its competition for Emirati filmmakers. Hani Al Shaibani, whose second feature Jumaa and the Sea screens at the festival, and Fadel Al Muhairi, who participated in the festival's pitching programme with his Gulf-based period action-adventure project ...
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News
Love Marriage and Keep Smiling take pitch prize in Abu Dhabi
The inaugural Middle East International Film Festival's Film Financing Circle (FFC) came to an end Wednesday night with an awards ceremony for the finalists of its pitching programme, the InCircle Pearl.Audience favourite Soman Chainani's Love Marriage, a comedy about two weddings that threaten to tear apart an Indian family in ...
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News
Weinstein keynote gives strong start to Abu Dhabi festival
Abu Dhabi 's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) got off to an extravagant start on Sunday evening with a ceremony that included an Academy Awards-style opening number choreographed by Broadway veteran Otis Sallid. A lavish party at the opulent festival centre, Emirates Palace, followed the screening of opening ...
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News
Abu Dhabi festival to include talks with Weinstein and Haggis
Harvey Weinstein and director Paul Haggis have joined the line-up of industry executives attending Abu Dhabi's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (Oct 14-19).After several weeks of negotiation, Weinstein has agreed to open the festival's Film Financing Circle (FFC) with a speech on international co-productions, while Haggis will teach a ...
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News
Haggis' Elah to close inuagural Abu Dhabi festival
Abu Dhabi's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (Oct 14-19) has announced its line-up of Arab films, plus its closing night gala - Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah. The Venice critics' favourite adds to an international line-up of Iraq-themed, festival hits; other 'special presentations' (gala screenings) include Todd ...
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News
Abu Dhabi unveils competition line-up
The inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) has unveiled the full line-up for its Competition programme. The festival takes place in Abu Dhabi between October 14 -19.Presented by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), the Festival also hosts the inaugural Film Financing Circle (FFC), which will ...
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News
Middle East festival adds ipod competition, more industry delegates
Adding to a plethora of prizes, Abu Dhabi 's Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), Oct 14-19, has launched an iPod competition for Middle Eastern short filmmakers. The Hayah (meaning 'life' in Arabic) Film Competition is open to students, professionals and amateurs making films for the iPod screen. Winners will ...
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News
Inaugural Middle East festival selects Israeli film
In a surprise move, Abu Dhabi's Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), October 14-19, has selected an Israeli film to play in competition. Head programmer Nancy Collet issued the invitation to Eran Kolirin's Cannes favourite The Band's Visit, which is about the visit of an Egyptian marching band to a ...
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Features
Exhibition - Middle East - Gulf starts to widen
A new US-style mall opens every couple of months in the Gulf, most of them complete with a multiplex. Exhibitors in other territories, including Egypt and Lebanon, have ambitious plans to expand their reach but all battle with censorship and piracy and, outside the Gulf, with political and economic uncertainty."Last ...
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News
$3m Young Cleopatra begins Egyptian shoot
UKfilm, TV and theatre company Stagescreen Productions begins shooting The Young Cleopatra, the first in a series of historical features, in Egypt on November 4. The shoot will take place at the Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC), a partner in the project, and on locations in Alexandria and around the ...
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News
Beirut Film Festival cancelled
This year's Beirut International Film Festival, due to run Oct 3-10, has been cancelled. 'The presidential elections are coming up and this is the most precarious and unstable time for us,' festival director Colette Naufal told Screendaily. 'The limbo now that means it's very difficult to plan - if the ...
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News
Film Financing Circle announcedfor Abu Dhabi Festival
Organisers of Abu Dhabi 's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) have announced details of the accompanying Film Financing Circle (FFC), which takes place at the Emirates Palace hotel, the festival centre, October 15-17. 'Since the conception of the festival, I have wanted to offer an arena where global ...
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News
Egypt starts record-breaking feature The Baby Doll Night
Egyptian company The Good News Group goes into production on The Baby Doll Night, a shoot set to trump their previous hit The Yacoubian Building in scale and budget. The $5m production is the most expensive Egyptian film to date. Shooting begins in Cairo on September 22, followed by a ...
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Features
Lebanon - Going for a song
Hany Tamba's 2005 short After Shave (Beyrouth Apres-Rasage) marked the Lebanese director out as a major talent. Stunningly shot, witty and poignant, it won the French Cesar for best short film in 2006. Tamba is now editing his first feature, a comedy about a one-hit-wonder French singer (played by Patrick ...
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Features
United Arab Emirates - Gulf of opportunity
Jon Fitzgerald's career has taken him from Park City to Santa Barbara via the Bahamas and Florida - and now to the Gulf, where he has been appointed director of Abu Dhabi's inaugural Middle East International Film Festival (Meiff).Invited by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission's Abed Awad, Fitzgerald was initially ...
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News
Amralla named artistic director at Dubai festival
Dubai International Film Festival has promoted Masoud Amralla Al Ali, previously head of Arab programming, to the position of artistic director. He will work alongside festival chairman Abdulhamid Juma and managing director Shivani Pandya, and be supported by Simon Field, who oversees international programming. Other members of the programming team ...