Salma Hayek and Yousra confirmed for Doha

If Abu Dhabi and Dubai can notch up the glam quotient at their respective film festivals, then why should Doha lag behind?

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival has confirmed that Hollywood’s Salma Hayek-Pinault will be attending Qatar’s five-day celebration of world cinema, which kicks off on October 26.

The actor, producer and director will be a member of the festival’s jury, which also comprises English actor, producer and director, Nick Moran of “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” fame, along with Indian director Bhavna Talwar and Bosnian screenwriter and film director of the Academy Award winning “No Man’s Land”, Danis Tanovic.

The jury president will be Egyptian superstar, Yousra, who will be replacing the previously announced Hany Abu-Assad who has had to step back from his role due to a delay in production with his latest film, “The Courier”, currently shooting on location in Louisiana.

Together they will choose the winners of the Festival’s Arab Film Competition: Best Arab Film and Best Arab Filmmaker who will each receive awards of $100,000.In a statement, Yosra said: “I’m honoured to be the first Jury President of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, and I want to thank my fellow jurors Salma, Nick, Danis and Bhavna for joining me. It’s a great privilege for me to work with them and I hope that together, we can fulfill the expectations of the filmmakers, and can contribute towards highlighting the Arab Cinema and further encouraging the talent from the region.”

Starry affair

While in its second year, DTFF has always maintained the event is more to do with the community then simply bringing down the big celebrity names. But no film festival could ever be complete without a few head turners and Oscar winners to grace the red carpet affairs.

And while DTFF is still mum on the other big named attendees at the festival, Emirates 24|7 predicts that Robert De Niro should definitely make an appearance – what with him being one of the founder members of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and the fact that his latest film, “Stone”, will be screening in Doha next week.

Other names expected to be there include “Slumdog Millionaire’s” Freida Pinto, who is expected to be at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival this week for her film “Miral”, which will also screen at DTFF.

Talent from Bollywood is also expected to show their faces, and stories have been circulating for over month that the sexy Mallika Sherawat will slither in with her new movie “Hissss”, but when quizzed, no response was forthcoming from DTFF.

From the Arab talents, aside from stand-up comedian Ahmed Ahmed, who has been confirmed, we can certainly expect Leblaba and Khaled Abol Naga to continue with their festival circuit tour of the Middle East and show up in Doha after leaving Abu Dhabi next week and rounding up the year by appearing at Dubai International Film Festival in December. 
 
Feature film line-up

With just seven more days before the festival kicks off in Doha, the organizers have also added seven more feature films to its programme – including Andrew Lau’s “Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen”, John Curran’s “Stone” starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, “Machete” starring Jessica Alba, Danny Trejo and Don Johnson, “Casino Jack” starring Kevin Spacey and a special IMAX presentation of “Paranormal Activity 2”.Two previously unannounced Indian films “Rakht Charitra” by Ramgopal Verma and Vikramaditya Motwane’s “Udaan” will also have their Qatar premiere at the festival and one new title, “Champs Elysees Je t’aime”, has been added to the Arab Short Film Competition.

As announced earlier, headlining the second edition of DTFF will be the award-winning French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb’s action-thriller, “Outside the Law”. Set against the backdrop of the Algerian struggle for independence from France after WWII, “Outside the Law” is the tale of three Algerian brothers who lost their family home in France's 1945 attack on the market town, Setif, and scattered across the globe.

The five-day event will close with Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader”, the inspirational story about an elderly farmer in a Kenyan village who wants to enroll in a local school and learn to read. The film stars Naomie Harris and Oliver Litondo.Tickets for all films at DTFF are on sale at box offices located at the City Center Cinema and the Villaggio Cinemas.

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