“The Butler” helmer Lee Daniels to head Dubai Film Festival jury November 5, 2014 - 17:31 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Butler and Precious director Lee Daniels will be heading to the Middle East next month to head the jury for the Dubai International Film Festival’s main ‘Muhr’ feature competition, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The festival, which is due to run Dec. 10-17, made the announcement Tuesday, Oct 4 just a day after it revealed the films that will be competing for its top prize. Among the line-up of regional features comes United Arab Emirates’ drama Dolphins from Waleed Al Shehhi, Algerian thriller I’m Dead by Yacine Mohamed Benelhadj, I am Nujoom, Aged 10 and Divorced, the story of a Yemeni child bride from Khadija Al-Salami and Moroccan drama The Sea is Behind by Hicham Lasri. Reine Mitri also competes with his Lebanese doc In This Land Lay Graves of Mine, alongside Hisham Zaman’s refugee odyssey A Letter to the King, The Narrow Frame of Midnight by Tala Hadid, Palestinian doc The Council from Yahya Alabdallah and Out of the Ordinary by renowned Egyptian director Daoud Abdel Sayed. Many of these films will be world premieres have been supported financial by the festival’s own Enjaaz post-production program. Last year, DIFF’s best film and best director award went to Hany Abu Assad’s Oscar-nominated Palestinian drama Omar.  Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running”   Partner news |  Latest news PACE wants concessions from Azerbaijan to accept Baku back  A PACE co-rapporteur said that Azerbaijani authorities must make certain concessions so that the country can return to PACE.Armenia PM, France envoy discuss regional matters Issues related to the consistent development of Armenia-France cooperation were discussed.Turkey extends military presence in Azerbaijan The Turkish parliament has adopted a bill submitted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to extend the mandate of Turkish troops.Russia to begin assessing migrant workers' speaking skills Rosobrnadzor is planning to change the Russian language exam for migrant workers and include an assessment of speaking skills |
