Oscar winner Cate Blanchett to attend Dubai Film Fest

The first of the glitzy celebs to jet down for the upcoming Dubai International Film Festival has just been announced, with Academy Award winning Cate Blanchett serving a jury member at the weeklong event.

The Australian actress will join the jury to select the winner for the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Award in December during DIFF’s ninth edition, with $100,000 being awarded at a special gala to be held at the One&Only Royal Mirage Hotel.

The four shortlisted projects include “Nothing Doing in Baghdad” by Maysoon Pachachi, “The Sleeping Tree” by Mohammed Rashed Buali, “Girls in the Know” by Abdullah Al Kaabi and “From A to B” by Ali F Mostafa.

These feature-length fiction film projects were selected from hundreds of established and upcoming directors from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, state DIFF.

The IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Award was launched earlier this year to offer the financial means to help the winning filmmaker transfer their vision to the screen.

Georges Kern, CEO of the luxury watchmaker, said: “For many years now we have had a passion for the cinema. Every director tells a story with his films… Our experiences with the region’s leading film festivals in the last few years convinced us that the talent and stories from the Gulf deserves an international stage.

“We believe in the proliferation of new voices, and we are delighted to contribute to the Arab storytelling by this Filmmaker Award.”

Joining Blanchett on the jury is Kern, along with Abdulhamid Juma, Chairman of DIFF, Masoud Amralla Al Ali, Artistic Director of DIFF and Olivier Père, General Director of Paris-based Arte France Cinema.

DIFF will run from December 9 until 16, with previous stars to walk the red carpet at this annual event including George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Ben Affleck, Nicolas Cage, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and many more.

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