The jury members who will select the winning films at this year’s Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) have been announced and feature an impressive line-up of international cinema talent. The Narrative Competition jury is led by the Mumbai-based actor Irrfan Khan and includes the renowned Algerian novelist Waciny Laredj, the award-winning English writer and director Steven Shainberg, the Australian film director Cate Shortland and the award-winning Palestinian actor Ali Suliman. The New Horizons jury, led by the Paris-based film producer Catherine Dussart, includes the Syrian actor Bassel Al Khayat, the Moroccan filmmaker Leila Kilani, the Indian filmmaker Anup Singh and the film critic Charles Tesson, the artistic director of Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival. The Documentary Competition jury is led by the Brooklyn-based director Christina Voros and includes the Moroccan filmmaker Daoud Aoulad Syad, the documentary filmmaker Elyes Baccar from Tunisia, the American-Egyptian filmmaker and cinematographer Sherief Elkatsha and the video artist and documentary filmmaker Amar Kanwar, from India. – AP
DIFF reveals Arab short-film prize contenders
The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) has revealed the films from some of the Arab world's most talented up-and-coming directors that will compete for its Muhr Short competition. The winner will be considered for the 2016 Academy Awards. The Iraqi filmmaker Sahim Omar Kalifa returns to DIFF, following the success of his multi award-winning film Baghdad Messi, with his highly acclaimed short The Bad Hunter, about a young man in rural Kurdistan who witnesses a horrific act that will change his life forever. Also competing are the Palestinian director Rami Yasin's family drama In Overtime; the Lebanese filmmaker Elie Kamal's Revoltango, which is also getting its world premiere; the award-winning Egyptian filmmaker Ahmed Khaled's White Sugar; The Night of the Blind Moon from the Tunisian director Khadija Fatma Lemkecher; the Jordanian director Yassmina Karajah's Light; No Exit by Mohanad Yaqubi; and The Aftermath of the Inauguration of the Public Toilet at Kilometer 375 by the Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy. The 11th DIFF runs from December 10 to 17. – The National staff
Leviathan wins in London ahead of ADFF
The Russian film Leviathan, which will screen at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, has won the top prize at the London Film Festival. The tragic satire of small-town corruption, directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, was named Best Film. It was praised for its "grandeur and themes" by a jury that included the Scottish actor James McAvoy and the producer Jeremy Thomas. The documentary prize went to Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait, a searing look at war's brutality. Catch Leviathan at ADFF on October 29 at 6.15pm and October 31 at 6pm. Both screenings are at Vox Cinems at Marina Mall. – The National staff
Celebrate Emirati culture and heritage with an evening of music and poetry
Leading Emirati artists will perform an evening of traditional Arab music and poetry dedicated to the country’s cultural heritage as part of the Abu Dhabi Classics concert season. The acclaimed master of the oud, Faisal Al Saari, will be joined by the poet Abdullah Al Heydah and Ali Mohammed Matar Helal Al Keebali, an expert on the rebab, another stringed instrument. “I have always loved Abdullah Al Hedyah’s poetry and I am really looking forward to seeing how his words and my music work together. We want to pay tribute to our country and to what makes up its real beauty – its heritage,” said Al Saari. The Song of Heritage is at the Al Qattara Arts Centre in Al Ain for one night only on October 27. Entry for the outdoor event is free. – The National staff
Tributes to Leno for winning top US humour prize
Fellow comedians honoured Jay Leno on Sunday as the former talk-show host received the top humour prize in the United States. Jimmy Fallon, Jerry Seinfeld and Wanda Sykes celebrated the former Tonight Show host's famous work ethic and affectionately poked fun at the 64-year-old as he received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Fallon, who replaced Leno this year on The Tonight Show, said it was a good time to honour "a man who has done so much for NBC – so much that we had to celebrate his career on PBS". The award honours people who have had an impact on American society in the tradition of Samuel Clemens, the writer, satirist and social commentator better known as Mark Twain. Past honorees have included Carol Burnett, Ellen DeGeneres, Will Ferrell and Bill Cosby. – AP
Shabana Azmi in Ductac play in November
The award-winning Bollywood and theatre actress Shabana Azmi will take the stage for the family comedy Happy Birthday Sunita at Ductac next month. The play, which is touring the United Kingdom, was written by the actress and the playwright Harvey Virdi (Bend It Like Beckham) and created by Pravesh Kumar, an artistic director for the UK-based Rifco and Watford Palace Theatre. The story revolves around the Johlas, a British-Punjabi family celebrating their daughter Sunita's 40th birthday. Azmi, who has starred in critically acclaimed movies such as Arth (1982), Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996) and Midnight's Children (2012), plays Tejpal, the matriarch of the household. Happy Birthday Sunita will be staged in Dubai from November 27 to 29. Tickets are priced from Dh200 and available from www.ductac.org. – The National staff
Fury defeats Gone Girl in box-office battle
The Second World War drama Fury blasted Gone Girl aside at this weekend. The film, which opens in the UAE on Thursday, stars Brad Pitt as the commander of a ragtag tank platoon. It earned US$23.5 million (Dh86.32m) in ticket sales during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, according to studio estimates, knocking David Fincher's Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck, into second place after two weeks on top, with $17.8m. "The fall movie season is all about making the transition from the PG-13 world of summer to the R-rated, edgier world of the fall and awards season," said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak. The animated film The Book of Life opened in third place with $17m, followed by Disney's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day with $12m and The Best of Me with $10.2m. Overall, box-office takings were up almost 25 per cent from the same weekend last year. - AP
Easy Rider ‘Captain America’ motorbike sells for Dh4.95 million
The iconic Harley-Davidson chopper-style motorbike ridden by Peter Fonda in the classic 1969 movie Easy Rider sold for US$1.35 (Dh4.95m) at auction this weekend. The Captain America bike came with authenticating documents, including a letter from Fonda. The red, white and blue stars-and-stripes panhead chopper was designed and built by two African-American bike builders, Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy, based on design suggestions from Fonda. “After fierce bidding, we are so pleased that the buyer values this for the cultural icon that it is,” said the seller, Mike Eisenberg. Two Captain America bikes were built for the film – the one sold on Saturday was used in the crash scene at the end of the film. It was sold as part of a sale of Hollywood memorabilia at the entertainment-industry auction house Profiles in History’s auction rooms in Calabasas, near Los Angeles. - AFP
Pakistani star visits Abu Dhabi for Showbiz Expo
The Pakistani actor, singer and director Shaan Shahid is in Abu Dhabi for the International Showbiz Expo 2014, a conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from October 21-23. Shahid is one of the keynote speakers at the event, alongside Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Jamal Al Sharif, the chairman of Dubai Film and TV Commission and the managing director of Dubai Studio City and Dubai Media City; and Michael Garin, the chief executive of Image Nation (a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, publisher of The National). The expo will focus on developing the film industry in a global context by looking outside of Hollywood, towards rapidly growing markets such as the Middle East and Asia. For a full schedule of events, visit isbexpo.com. – The National staff
Blunt admits his best-known song is ‘annoying’
The British singer-songwriter James Blunt has described You're Beautiful, the multimillion selling song as "annoying" and says it was "force-fed down people's throats". The song was Blunt's breakout hit when it was released in 2005, topping charts around the world, from the United States to Australia. It sold more than three million copies in the US alone and was number one in ten countries, including the United Kingdom, Spain and Canada. But Blunt, a former soldier who served with Nato in Kosovo, said: "There was one song that was force-fed down people's throats – You're Beautiful – and it became annoying, and then people start to associate the artist with the same word." Blunt made the statement to Hello! magazine during an interview that will be published on Monday. The song tells of Blunt's surprise at seeing a former girlfriend on the London Underground with another man.The 40-year-old musician added that, because of the success of the track, his music had been marketed to women and he had therefore lost out on male fans."The marketing also painted me out as an insanely serious person, an earnest person and, as all my friends know, I'm anything but," Blunt said. "I have a couple of over-emotional, miserable songs that I'm known for, but I think it's turned that corner now." - AFP
Letterman’s cue-card holder says he was to blame for getting fired
David Letterman's long-time cue-card holder says he prompted his own firing by getting aggressive with a colleague. Tony Mendez told the New York Post that he lost his job after grabbing a co-worker by the shirt on October 9 behind the scenes of CBS's Late Show with David Letterman. The 69-year-old said he knew he shouldn't have laid a hand on his colleague and Letterman hadn't been told of any tensions between the two. Mendez had become familiar to Late Show viewers, appearing in episodes going back to at least 1997. - AP
American TV shows honoured for spreading environmental message
The American television comedies New Girl and Parenthood and the documentary show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey have been honoured by the Environmental Media Association for supporting green initiatives. The organisation presented its Environmental Media Awards on Saturday during a gala dinner that also celebrated its 25th anniversary. The former St Elsewhere actor Ed Begley Jr, a member of the board, praised the association for encouraging entertainment media to help educate the public about environmental concerns. Guests at the event at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California, included the actors Malin Akerman, Lance Bass, Sara Gilbert, Jeff Goldblum and Arnold Schwarzenegger. - AP
