Dubai to promote Arab talent at 3rd film festival

Dubai, Nov 29: Hollywood, Bollywood and art house step aside, Dubai is promoting homegrown talent in the Gulf Arab region, often derided as a cultural desert, with a new award for Arab cinema at its international film festival next month.

The weeklong festival, now in its third year, has fast become a venue for film-makers to show uncut movies to ethnically-diverse audiences in the cosmopolitan city where authorities normally censor cinema.

For the first time, the festival, which begins on December 10, will award 325,000 dollar as prizes for feature films, documentaries and shorts made by Arabs about the Arab world. There will also be a new contest for film-makers from the United Arab Emirates.

''We are dedicated to developing the film industry in this region and honing the talents of up and coming film-makers,'' said Masoud Amrallah al-Ali, Arabic programming director.

Showing 115 films from the Arab world, Hollywood, South Asia, Europe and Africa, the festival sees itself as promoting East-West cultural dialogue through film.

The festival has attracted attention since 2004 for premiering controversial films concerning the Arab world that would find difficulty getting a public airing in the region -- on issues such as cultural identity and attitudes towards the United States since it launched its ''war on terror''.

The red carpet will be out for US director Oliver Stone, in town to promote his new film ''World Trade Centre'', about the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities carried out by 19 Arabs.

Also screening is ''Death of a President'', which recently caused controversy in the United States with its depiction of the hypothetical assassination of US President George W Bush. Some US cinema chains snubbed the film.

Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's ''Babel'', which is tipped for an Oscar, will get its Middle East premiere. Starring Brad Pitt, the film looks at how the failure of cultures to communicate can lead to violence.

Indian director Kabir Khan's ''Kabul Express'' will also get its first showing in the West Asia. The first international film made in Afghanistan since the Taliban fell in 2001, it looks at the aftermath of the war through the eyes of three journalists who befriend a Taliban fighter.

Among the 30 Arab films competing for the awards are ''The Last Man'', or ''Atlal'', a vampire film by Lebanese director Ghassan Salhab. ''Beirut Diaries: Truth, Lies and Videos'' by award-winning documentary-maker Mai Masri will also compete.

On the theme of Lebanon, the festival will show 14 shorts of one to four minutes each filmed during Israel's war with Hezbollah in July and August.

REUTERS