Glitz, glamour at DTFF finale Sunday, 31 October 2010 06:36

By Fazeena Saleem

DOHA: Hawi won the Best Arab Film award at the second Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF), which ended yesterday with a closing night gala and open-air concert at the Cultural Village, Katara.

The closing ceremony began with a red carpet welcome to celebrities, big names from the film industry and a number of guests. The awards ceremony was held at the Katara Opera House, with the event hosted by Ahmed Ahmed adding humour to the glitz and glamour.

Balls won the Best Arab Filmmaker award in recognition for its screenplay. The First Grader and Grandma, A Thousand Times won the Audience Awards for Best Narrative Film and Best Documentary Film, respectively. Sirwar Zirkly’s Missing won the prize for Best Arab Short Film in the Arab Film Competition.

Mahmoud Kaabour, director of Grandma, A Thousand Times also received a Special Jury Mention.

The two Arab film competition winners and Audience Award winners each received $100,000. The five-member DTFF jury was headed by Yosra and its members were Salma Hayek Pinault, Nick Moran, Bhavna Talwar and Danis Tanovic. The jury for the Arab Short Film Competition consisted of filmmakers in the Arab Film Competition.

Meanwhile, DTFF’s partnership with the Giffoni Experience, an international exchange of children’s ideas and film experiences, saw 60 children from Doha and six other children from abroad working as jurors and awarding prizes to two short films, Pictogram Story and Transit.

Pictogram Story is an offbeat animated love story. Transit is the story of a 10-year-old boy who on return from a holiday comes across a strange and desperate man at the airport who changes his life forever.

Tribeca Enterprises cofounders Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff , and Chief Creative Officer Geoffrey Gilmore were among those attending the closing night gala.

The five-day festival ended with a screening of The First Grader and an open-air concert by Ragheb Alama screened to thousands in three venues at Katara.

The film festival featured a diverse selection of 51 feature films from the Middle East and 35 countries around the world. The films were screened at theatres and free screenings were held at public places The festival included panel discussions about filmmaking and a Family Day attracted huge crowds.

The curtains came down on the festival with the promise of an even more vibrant event next year.

THE PENINSULA