Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), and the honorable Patron The fifth Gulf Film Festival launched the festival Tuesday night gracing the red carpet with high profile Gulf and Arab film stars.
155 quality films from 40 nations are to screen this year at the festival, with full access to the public. The festival is held at Dubai Festival City and parallel screenings of the festival's key films are showing April 12 to 14 at the Abu Dhabi Theatre.
A total of 347 films are being screened at the festival, within its Gulf, Gulf Student and International shorts competitions; as well as the out-of-competition Lights, Intersections, Films for Children, Cherries of Kiarostami and Gerard Courant categories.
The Festival honored veteran Bahraini filmmaker Bassam Al-Thawadi on opening night and saluted legendary Iranian actor Behrouz Vossoughi for their contribution to cinema while The Kuwaiti feature film Tora Bora was selected to initiate GFF 2012.
Tora Bora, deals with a young man's decision to join extremist forces in Afghanistan, and his parents' distressing search for him, top Kuwaiti actor Saad Al Faraj's makes a big comeback after decades.
Gulf and UAE stars Alaa Al Nuaimi, Marwan Abdullah Saleh, Mansoor Al Ghassani, Mansoor Al Fili, Fatema Al Jassim, Huda Al Khatib, Hani Al Shibani, Mohammed Saeed Al Salti, Abdulrahman Al Zarouni, Adel Ibrahim, Hassan Youssef, Reem, Khalid Ali, Ahmed Nasser, Omar Al Mulla, Huda Salah, Nivine Madhi, Alia Al Shamsi, Huda Hamdan, Bilal Abdullah, Habib Ghuloom, Rawya Abdullah, Aisha Abdullah, Jassim Obaid, Shaimaa Al Janahi and many others walked the red carpet yesterday.
Kuwaiti celebrities; Tora Bora director Walid Al Awadi and the film cast Saad Al Farraj, Khalid Ameen and Al Araby Al Sassy. Gulf celebrities Basima Hamada, Shahd Yasen, Basm Al Amir, Abeer Al Jundi, Ahmed Abraaj, Zyna Karam, Mohammed Khalifa, Hassan Yaseen, Ahmed Mubarak, Saud Ali, Ibrahim Al Hasawi, Abdulaziz Jaseem, Nasser Mohammad, Mohammed Yaseen, Mariam Sultan, Zahra, Haifa Hussein, Ala'a Shakir and Fatema Abdulrahim, also shined on GFF's 5th session opening night.
The Festival will wrap its sessions on April 16th announcing and awarding winners of the competition.
