$1m bounty at Abu Dhabi Film Fest in prize money

Published Tuesday, September 25, 2012

By Bindu Suresh Rai

While the complete star-studded guest list may remain a closely guarded secret until we draw closer to the 10-day Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which runs from October 11 until 20, Festival Director Ali Al Jabri has confirmed Southern superstar Mammootty and Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani will walk the red carpet on opening night, along with Hollywood’s Richard Gere and Nate Parker for “Arbitrage.”

Meanwhile, India’s National Award-winning actor and humanitarian, Shabhana Azmi, will serve as a jury member during the festival.

Other notable names in world cinema include Egyptian screen legend, Sawsan Badr, who, along with Italy’s Claudia Cardinale, will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Being an Arab film festival, ADFF promises a volley of regional actors and filmmakers, including the award-winning Egyptian actress Mona Zaki, along with Carmen Lebbos,

Winning the bounty

According to Al Jabri, “over $1m in prize money will be handed out this year – the largest ever at an international film festival.”

With over 3,000 submissions, Al Jabri revealed the difficult job of whittling the selection down to 81 feature films in total (62 Narrative Features, 19 Documentary Features) representing 45 countries and eight world premieres at ADFF this year, competing for $250,000 in prize money in the Black Pearl Awards.

The New Horizons category, dedicated to new directors with challenging ideas, will feature an additional $225,000 in prize money across categories; while the Documentary Feature Competition will feature a bounty of an additional $275,000.

The Showcase features, which include movies such as Gere’s “Arbitrage”, along with the Robert Redford-directed “The Company You Keep”, Denzel Washington’s “Flight”, the late Whitney Houston’s final film, “Sparkle”, among others, will vie for $100,000 across categories.

Meanwhile, the Short Films category saw over 1,600 submissions, which have been narrowed down to 74 in totality (28 Short Film Competition, 45 in Emirates Film Competition and 1 Special Programming).

While the Short Film Competition will compete for $115,000 in grants, the Emirates Film Competition that returns once again this year, with 46 films being showcased, 39 of which have been produced in the UAE, will take vie for the big innings of $335,000 across categories.

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