ABU DHABI // Arab filmmaking received a major funding infusion this week, courtesy of the UAE.
The cash available for distribution includes a US$500,000 (Dh136,132) fund announced by the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF), and another $120,000 from Dubai Film Connection, the co-production arm of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).
The cash can help in a variety of facets of filmmaking, including script development, post-production, hiring established directors and sales and marketing.
ADFF launched its new fund, dubbed Sanad, this week at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Peter Scarlet, the executive director of the Abu Dhabi festival, said it would help create a "vibrant and viable" cinema scene in the Middle East. "Sanad is a way in which the festival can support the region's filmmakers in developing their own voices and taking their place in the international film community," he said.
Sanad will fund story development and post-production for feature-length narratives and documentaries, the most "concrete" need in the Arab world, he said.
"There's an amazing amount of untapped creative potential in the region and these grants are an important building block," he said.
With post-production grants of up to $60,000 and development funds up to $20,000, Sanad could address the problem of money lost by film-makers who take underdeveloped scripts into production without polishing them, he said.
"Putting them through a development project under the careful eye of professionals will help that," he said.
The submission panel, headed by Marie-Pierre Macia, an Algerian filmmaker and former curator of international films for the San Francisco International Film Festival, began accepting submissions last month.
Eissa al Mazrouei, the festival's project director, said five scripts arrived in the first two weeks.
"The feedback has been phenomenal," he said. "In terms of filmmaking, the Arab world is fertile ground and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival is at the forefront of nurturing the region's film culture."
Also this week, the Dubai festival announced a $10,000 boost to its annual co-production funding programme for Arab cinema, Dubai Film Connection (DFC), bringing the grant money available to $120,000.
Now in its fourth year, the DFC offers prize money but also acts as a networking platform for newcomers to meet directors and experts in film distribution and sales.
Among the films DFC helped to fund are City of Life, the Emirati feature film about Dubai which completes its fourth week at UAE box offices tomorrow, and Amreeka, the light-hearted story of a Palestinian immigrant family which screened at last year's Sundance Film Festival and won the International Federation of Film Critics prize at Cannes.
"One of the founding objectives of DIFF has been to encourage regional filmmaking talent, not only through creative support but financial and production assistance and know-how," said Shivani Pandya, the managing director of DIFF. "DFC has successfully accomplished this goal, and has drawn the interest of film-makers of Arab origin globally to Dubai."
Jac Mulder, a film director who has been based in the UAE for 11 years and was a recent winner of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission's short film competition, Aflaam Qaseera, said the funding from both emirates would encourage outside investors.
"The sooner people start to invest in the industry then the sooner the whole cycle will begin to develop," he said.
Mr Mulder said it was important to recognise the long-term economic benefits of investing in films.
"A lot of people have lost money by investing in real estate over the past couple of years and they are looking for alternative avenues.
"If a film is done well it will make a director money for the rest of his life, but at the moment there are no examples of big films from the region. Funds like this will help to lead the way. The potential of making money in filmmaking in this region is enormous because of the number of people and nationalities living here. Plus, the whole world is fascinated with the Middle East at the moment. There is so much untapped history and untold stories here that it makes for a whole new flavour of storytelling.
"If someone is willing to back them and to do them properly then it will benefit the whole region."
@Email:aseaman@thenational.ae
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Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
THREE
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."