Audiences at the 9th Dubai International Film Festival can be expected to be spellbound this year. The latest film announcements include the David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Paul Thomas Andersons The Master, Bill Murray starring as President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson, Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut Quartet and Wayne Blair’s musical drama The […]
Audiences at the 9th Dubai International Film Festival can be expected to be spellbound this year. The latest film announcements include the David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Paul Thomas Andersons The Master, Bill Murray starring as President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson, Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut Quartet and Wayne Blair’s musical drama The Sapphires.
Sheila Whitaker, Director of the Festivals International Programme, said: DIFFs Cinema of the World programme this year is a fascinating range of remarkable films from some of international cinemas finest filmmakers and acting talent.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film following There Will Be Blood is The Master, an absorbing psychological drama. It is based on aimless WWII veteran who befriends a charismatic founder of a new religion. Along with extraordinary performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, this is one of the most talked about films of the year.
Acclaimed filmmakers Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, bring an epic drama Cloud Atlas starring Academy Award winners Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Susan Sarandon. Based on the celebrated best-selling novel, the film explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future.
A film that is already generating Oscar Buzz is Hyde Park on Hudson which tells the story of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his love affair with his distant cousin, Daisy. The film centres on a weekend in 1939 when the King and Queen of the United Kingdom visited upstate New York. The weekend produces not only a special relationship between two great nations, but also for Daisy and through her, for us all a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.
Other highlights include Dustin Hoffman’s amusing and perceptive first directorial foray Quartet. Shot in the British countryside the film focuses on a trio of retired opera singers living out their sunset years in an idyllic care home for aging musicians but sometimes old feuds can arise. With Maggie Smith leading the cast, she is joined by Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly and Michael Gambon. There are talks of an early Oscar possibility.
Receiving a ten minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, The Sapphires is a crowd-pleasing combination of comedy, heart and romance and an unbeatable soul music soundtrack. Set against the upheavals of the late 1960s, its an inspirational tale about a quartet of young, talented singers from a remote Aboriginal mission. Catapulted onto the world stage as Australia’s answer to the Supremes, their journey of discovery offers them not only the chance to show off their musical skills, but find love and togetherness, experience loss and grow as women.
DIFF’s Artistic Director Masoud Amralla al Ali commented: While filmmaking techniques and the technology continue to evolve dramatically, some aspects of good cinema remain the same a powerful narrative, exemplary performances and the power to touch your heart.
