DAY 8: Awards Ceremony of Emirates Film Competition and International Short Films Today

Highlights for Thursday, October 30, 2014

•    World Premiere of QUEENS OF SYRIA
•    NOBI (FIRES ON THE PLAIN) by Shinya Tsukamoto and HUNGRY HEARTS by Saverio Costanzo in Narrative Competition

Abu Dhabi, UAE – October 29, 2014: The Awards Ceremony of Emirates Film Competition and International Short Film Competition that featured as part of Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2014 will take place today at Emirates Palace Ballroom 3 at 20:00. Journalists are welcome to attend the photo call (19:30) and the ceremony.

The World Premiere of SANAD-funded film QUEENS OF SYRIA, competing in the Documentary Competition of ADFF 2014, will take place at VOX 4 at 19:15. The film directed and cinematographed by Yasmin Fedda depicts the compelling story of resilient Syrian refugee women in Jordan, who come together to perform the Greek tragedy The Trojan Women and discover striking parallels of their lives in the ancient story of uprooted and enslaved queens and princesses.

NOBI (FIRES ON THE PLAIN) by Japanese director of cult hits, legendary Shinya Tsukamoto, is the celluloid re-telling of the 1959 anti-war film Fires on the Plain set in the Philippines during WWII. In his own words, Tsukamoto moved away from romanticising war and “injected the horrors and screams of those who died in the jungle into every frame” of his movie. (VOX 6 at 21:00). The film is included in ADFF’s Narrative Competition. Shinya Tsukamoto will attend the premiere of the film today. 

HUNGRY HEARTS, the cast of which won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards at Venice Film Festival will feature at VOX 5 at 21:30. Directed by Italian filmmaker Saverio Costanzo, the film is included in the Narrative Competition of the festival. The film set in New York is a claustrophobic suspense drama about post-natal depression and psychological breakdown. The director and female lead of the film will be available for audience interaction. The director as well as actress Alba Rohrwacher will be present. 

American jazz music drama film WHIPLASH directed by Damien Chazelle, which won the Best Film award at this year’s Sundance Festival, will have its screening at Emirates Palace at 21:15. It tells the story of a music-obsessed youth, who 

trains under a perfectionist master, who believes in whipping the talents out of his pupils. The film is included in ADFF’s New Horizons Comeptition. 
THE MAN FROM ORAN, the second feature film from the Algerian director Lyès Salem and included in New Horizons, will be screened today at VOX 6 at 18:00. 

American production POINT AND SHOOT by twice Oscar-nominated director Marshall Curry, is competing in the ADFF Documentary section. (VOX 4 at 16:45) The film won the Best Documentary award at Tribeca Festival. 

THE LOOK OF SILENCE directed by American filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer is the companion piece to his Oscar-nominated 2013 documentary The Act of Killing, which looks at the 1965 Indonesian genocide. The documentary films the confrontation of the aged killers by the brother of a victim. (VOX 4 at 21:15)
In the ADFF Showcase today will be the solo screening of Turkish film FISH by veteran filmmaker Dervis Zaim (VOX 3 at 21:45). Part of Zaim’s nature trilogy, the allegorical film is the tale of Kaya, who is tired by his poverty. Despite his moral dilemmas, Kaya resorts to the over-exploitation of a lake’s fish resources for greater profit and this leads to dire consequences. 

Part of ADFF Showcase is French production THE CONNECTION directed by Cedric Jimenez (Emirates Palace at 18:00) and featuring Academy Award winning actor Jean Dujardin. The film is based on the true story of the legendary judge Pierre Michel and his fight against the “French Connection”, a globally operating drug cartel in the 1970s. 

The restored 1980 François Truffaut classic THE LAST METRO will be presented at VOX 2 at 21:00 today. The 2007 film DÉLICE PALOMA is the film featuring in the Special Programme “The Arab Diaspora” today (VOX 2 at 18:15). 

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival runs from October 23 until November 1. The Ceremony for the winners of the Black Pearl Awards will take place on October 31.