Emirati Oscar?
Cheryl Boone Isaacs, recently elected to her second term as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, aka The Academy, home of The Oscars, had some encouraging words for Middle Eastern filmmakers this week. After attending the International Showbiz Expo and while appearing at the festival this week, she said global audiences are becoming more open to films from a variety of different cultures. "There's definitely room for more diversity in cinema these days," she said. "The world is really getting smaller and we can travel all over it in no time." Pressed on whether she could see herself potentially voting for an Emirati Oscar winner in the next 10 years on the red carpet for the opening film, Ali F Mostafa's From A to B, the Academy president was understandably diplomatic: "Well, obviously I can't say what I would vote on without having seen the film, but I don't see why not."
Ali Suliman
Ali Suliman, the Palestinian actor who has appeared in Hollywood big hitters including Body of Lies, alongside Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, and Lone Survivor, with Mark Wahlberg and Taylor Kitsch, has set something of a precedent in Hollywood as an Arab actor who mostly plays good guys. After appearing in Ali F Mostafa's festival opener From A to B, however he revealed that all that is about to change. "My next role is going to be quite the opposite," he said. "I'm talking really, really bad, and I can't wait." Suliman wouldn't reveal the movie title, but assured: "I promise you I'm going to be evil."
Geopolitics
The Qatar-based film maker Suzannah Mirghani had a quick lesson in geopolitics on hand when we chatted to her at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival's opening night party. The Russo-Sudanese director, who's film Hind's Dream is screening as part of the Emirates Film Competition, was quick to dispel suggestions that her ethnic mix was an exotic one.
“Not at all, there’s thousands of Russian/Sudanese,” she explains. “Everyone says ‘wow what an unusual mix’, but it’s not at all. In the 1960s the Soviet machine had its grip on Africa and said to all the smartest students ‘come over here and do a free scholarship’, and these guys came back with the ideologies they wanted.”
Hind's Dream is itself a tale of culture clash, as a Qatari girl struggles to adapt to the change from Bedouin life to the modern world. Could more Hollywood horror be coming to the UAE? We hear from reliable sources that the team behind Beware the Night, later retitled Deliver Us From Evil for its cinema release, were so impressed with the facilities and horror potential available in the desert here that a group of them are now searching locations for a new, unrelated Hollywood horror jaunt.
More Hollywood
It appears that Fast & Furious 7 and Star Wars: Episode VII may have just been the beginning. A team from a film Sony Pictures is working on, dubbed The Collector, have been in town for meetings and location shoots with representatives from the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and twofour54.
“We’re definitely looking for urban locations,” said Rob Heydon, who is a producer and location scout on the film.
The film follows the path of a former CIA operative who does things the CIA aren't legally allowed to do. No cast members are confirmed as yet, although we're told some very big names are connected, and it seems that downtown Abu Dhabi is likely to play host, rather than another attempt at filming in the desert a la Star Wars.
Heydon also produced Midnight Sun, which is screened at the festival.
The film is expected to host scenes in Thailand, the UAE and the US, and a number of crucial meetings to facilitate this are taking place over the course of ADFF.
cnewbould@thenational.ae