2010-01-04 19:03:07
WAM ABU DHABI, Jan 4th, 2010: The Middle East International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi announced today that the fourth edition of the Festival will be held October 14 - 23, 2010, in Abu Dhabi, organizros said in a press release.

The Festival, organized by Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, also announced a Call for Entries for narrative and documentary features as well as for short films in all genres.

Dates for entries are as follows: * April 1, 2010 - ENTRIES OPEN * July 1, 2010 - ENTRIES CLOSE Complete information regarding eligibility for the 2010 Middle East International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi will be available at www.meiff.com in late January 2010. Questions regarding entries may be directed to entries@meiff.com or by calling + 971 2 417 74 44.

Eissa Al Mazrouei, Managing Director of MEIFF commented "the Middle East International Film Festival aims to consolidate the status of Abu Dhabi as an emerging cultural center, and to promote the growth of the local film society. The festival celebrates cinema in all its forms, by creating a lively forum brings together storytellers from the Middle East and the world".

The third edition of the Festival, which came to a close on October 17, 2009, was the first under new Executive Director Peter Scarlet and marked some significant developments. Foremost among the changes implemented this year was the new format of the feature competition sections, one for fiction films and one for documentaries, half of each comprised of films from the Middle East. As Scarlet noted, "The filmmakers who served on our juries, the journalists and industry figures who traveled here, and the members of our local audience were unanimous about the strength of our program, especially the strength of the selections of films from this region. This is good news for filmmakers and film-lovers everywhere. And our ability to offer an attractive and vibrant showcase for talented and risk-taking filmmakers from all over the Middle East is an opportunity MEIFF will continue to emphasize in its future editions." The Festival showed 128 films from 49 countries and saw attendance at screenings double 2008's numbers to reach more than 31,000 people.

As in previous years, the Festival welcomed major stars from Hollywood, Bollywood and the Middle East, including Oscar-nominated actress Naomi Watts, two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, Demi Moore, Eva Mendes, Orlando Bloom, Freida Pinto, fashion designer Jason Wu, Zayed Khan, Lara Dutta, Akshay Kumar, Oscar-winner A. R. Rahman, Hend Sabry, Mahmoud Hemeda, Biyouna, Khaled Abol Naga, Golshifteh Farahani and Sawsan Badr.

Vanessa Redgrave was the recipient of the Festival's first Black Pearl Lifetime Achievement Award.

2009 marked the first time that the prize money for the Festival's Black Pearl Awards, which again totaled more than $1 million, included funds to support the completion of key Middle Eastern films selected by the Festival's programming team. The recipients this year were Son of Babylon by Mohamed Al-Daradji, which world premiered at MEIFF before being selected for Sundance and Berlin, Port of Memory by Kamal Aljafari, which also world premiered at the Festival, and We Were Communists by Maher Abi Samra, which screened as a work in progress.

Further announcements about the upcoming fourth edition of the Middle East International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi will be made throughout 2010.

WAM/MMYS