Abu Dhabi Film Festival Names Jury Members

LONDON – Cedomir Kolar, producer of the foreign language Oscar film No Man's Land, actress Shabana Azmi, star of more than 120 Hindi films and Niki Karimi, an Iranian actress turned director and screenwriter are on narrative feature competition jury duty at the upcoming Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

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The trio join Egyptian film critic Samir Farid and Ismael Farroukhi, the French-Morroccan director who won the best director from the Arab World plaudit at the ADFF last year on the jury.

Organizers also announced the names and faces making up the juries for the festival's other competitive sections.

Leading the jury to decide who will emerge with a prize in the New Horizons competition -- recognizing early work from new directors (first or second feature) – will be Oscar winning film editor Francoise Bonnot.

Fellow jurors are Venice Days director and movie programmer Giorgio Gosetti, Sri Lankan director Vikmuthi Jayasundra, Middle Eastern filmmaker Mohamed Al-Daradji and Nawaf Al-Janahi, one of the leading lights of Emirati filmmaking.

The documentary feature prize deliberations will be led by Chilean director Miguel Littin with Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, veteran journalist and Oscar nominated director Carles Bosch, ADFF documentary prize winner Safinez Bousbia (El Guato) and the Egyptian script director and producer Mohamed Hefzy throwing their opinions into the mix.

And the jury for Emirates film competition will be led by Tunisian director-producer Ridha Behi.

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival awards prizes to films in five competitions: Narrative Feature, New Horizons, Documentary Feature, Short Films, and Emirates Film Competition.

In addition FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics, awards a prize to Arab films screening in competition, while the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) will award the NETPAC prize to an Asian film.

Festival director Ali Al Jabri also said Bonnot will be conducting a master class during the festival.

This year marks the first outing for the Abu Dhabi Film Festival under the management of TwoFour54, as part of the plan to strategically align the festival alongside Abu Dhabi’s other media initiatives and related events.

The festival runs Oct. 11 through 20.