Egyptian actor Nour El-Sherif (Photo: Ahram Arabic Portal)
The 11th edition of Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) opened on Wednesday with James Marsh's The Theory of Everything starring Eddie Redmayn and Felecity Jones. A range of international as well as Arab stars attended the opening ceremony.
DIFF will screen 118 films from 48 countries and include 55 world and international premieres, bringing the total number of languages to 34.
Meanwhile, Golden Globe winner Emily Blunt is in Dubai to take part in the judges committee for the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Award, a collaboration with the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer that is currently in its third year. The prize of $100,000USD crowns the best filmmaker from the GCC and is set to be announced later on Thursday.
Waleed Al-Shehhi's Dolphin, winner of IWC Schaffhausen 2013, will be screened at the event on Friday.
Global Gift Gala, a fundraiser organised by DIFF and Dubai Cares, will be held on 14 December with all proceeds going towards a number of charities, including Dubai Cares and the Eva Longoria Foundation.
DIFF honoured veteran Egyptian actor Nour El-Sherif, whose career spanned across more than 100 films. The festival also honoured late Indian actress-singer Asha Posley who sang 12,000 songs for over 850 Indian films in her lifetime of 81 years.
Among the international celebrities that walked down the red carpet on Wednesday are: Emily Blunt, Mark Forester, Lee Daniels, Virginia Madsen and Olga Kurylenko. Arab actors included, Saad El-Farag, Khaled Amin, Haifaa Hussein, Nojoum Al-Ghanem, Waleed Al-Sehhi, Ahmad Al-Jasmi, Nour El-Sherif, Mervat Amin, Poussy, Khaled Aboul-Naga, Nadine Labaki, Sherine De'bes, Naglaa Badr, Mohamed Soliman, Lebleba, Lotfy Labib, Mohamed Ramadan, Abed Fahd, Zeina Yazigy, Mohamed Reda and Malek Ben Ismail also attended the opening
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