Palestinian Oscar entry “Omar” wins Dubai Film Fest top prize

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) organizers dished out its Muhr awards on the eve of the shindig's end, which will close Saturday, Dec 14 with a gala screening of David O. Russell's American Hustle, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The awards were presented at a standalone ceremony Dec. 13 by Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirates vp, prime minister and ruler of Dubai to dozens of the Arab world’s best filmmakers across the myriad Muhr Arab categories, as well as their counterparts from Asia and Africa.

Winners included Hany Abu Assad for Omar - the Palestinian film in the best foreign Oscar nomination race - for the Muhr Arab best director award. The United Arab Emirates/Palestian co-production's actor/producer Waleed Zuaiter picked up the best film prize for Omar in the same Muhr section.

Other plaudits included Tsai Ming Liang who won the festival's best feature (Asia/Africa) nod for Stray Dogs (Jiao You), a Taiwanese and French co-production.

Screen legend Irrfan Khan secured this year's Muhr best actor (Asia/Africa) prize for The Lunchbox (Dabba), the French, German and Indian co-production that had already attracted positive notices from prior festival screenings.

Organizers said this year's plaudits marked the most competitive and diverse competition since the inception of the awards in 2006 for Arab entrants and 2007 for filmmakers from Asia/Africa.

Both first-time directors and cinema legends such as Syrian director Mohamed Malas and Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Khan entered new films this year, beating hundreds of other entrants to be shortlisted.