'Amelia' to Open First Doha Tribeca Filmfest

The first Doha Tribeca Film Festival will open with a special screening of director Mira Nair's “Amelia,” a film about pilot Amelia Earhart starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere, fest organizers announced in a news release Tuesday.

The rest of the festival's slate will comprise 32 films, 12 of which have roots in the Middle East. The selections include "Cairo Time," starring Patricia Clarkson, the Toronto favorite from the Coen brothers "A Serious Man" and Soderbergh's "The Informant!"

“We’ve programmed this slate with the local audience at the forefront of our minds. We are creating an exciting and varied film festival experience by bringing some of the best Arab and international films to Doha,” Amanda Palmer, executive director of DTFF said in a statement.

“We are proud of the commitment of our attending filmmakers, who will help us take cinema appreciation to a new level here. These filmmakers will share their storytelling by not only showing their films, but by also engaging in other film-related activities, such as workshops and classes, throughout the Festival.”

"The film program was curated through a true collaboration between our programming team in Doha and New York,” added Geoff Gilmore, Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises. “We believe the line-up for our first festival reflects the genuineness of that cultural partnership and is embodied in the remarkable diversity and aesthetic range of the work.”

The festival will run from October 29 to November 1, 2009 in Doha, Qatar.

Events will be held at the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art and open-air screenings will occur around the city showing of the 1969 Egyptian film, “The Mummy (Al-Momia).” The film will be shown outdoors at the Souq Waqif, a traditional Middle Eastern bazaar in Doha.

Founded through a partnership between the Qatar Museums Authority and Tribeca Enterprises, the festival is modeled after the Tribeca Film Festival’s connection to local community and filmmaking.

In its first year, 31 of the 33 films in the festival will be eligible for two audience-based awards each carrying unrestricted cash prizes amounting to $50,000 (USD).  

A full schedule follows:

• About Elly (Darbareye Elly), directed and written by Asghar Farhadi. (Iran) – Qatar Premiere. Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) plans a weekend getaway with friends and invites her son’s kindergarten teacher, Elly (Taraneh Alidousti) to join, but a well-intentioned game of romance quickly turns tragic when she disappears. Saving face overtakes telling the truth as fear and guilt ensnare the group in mystery and lies. Winner of the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival’s Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. In Persian with English and Arabic subtitles.

 

• Amelia, directed by Mira Nair, written by Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan. (USA) – Special Screening. From acclaimed director Mira Nair comes the thrilling story of Amelia Earhart, the woman who changed the face of aviation forever. Amelia chronicles Earhart (Two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank) from her childhood roots in rural Kansas, through her early days as an adventurous student of the most respected male aviators, and to her rise to fame and subsequently heartbreaking disappearance on her world-renowned mission around the world in 1937.
   

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