Irrfan bags best actor trophy at Dubai film fest

December 15, 2013

Dubai_film_festDubai, Dec 15: Acclaimed Indian actor Irrfan Khan won the best actor award for his brilliant performance in "The Lunchbox" at the 10th edition of Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

Irrfan won the award Friday in the Muhr AsiaAfrica Feature category, while films writer-director Ritesh Batra got a special mention for screenplay for the film about a lunch box, which becomes a symbol of hope, in the same category. World renowned Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur headed the jury.

Sandeep Ray won the best director award for his Bengali language film "Shirno Bahu (Thin Arms)", which revolves around an octogenarian woman who undergoes treatment for a debilitating medical condition, in the Muhr Asia Africa shorts category.

DIFF chairman Abdulhamid Juma said that the sense of community this year was palpable.

"After 10 years, we are seeing recurrent visitors, both film professionals and cinema lovers, from the region and beyond. This year we celebrated the gains that have been made in Arab cinema in the past decade, the result of years of work from our team to discover, nurture and promote talent from the Arab world," he added.

"There is a feeling that Arab cinema has 'arrived,' with increasing numbers of Arab films on the world stage, winning awards at the most prestigious festivals, and gaining currency even with audiences who have never visited the region."

The 2013 winners are:

Emirates NBD People's Choice Award:

Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee for American film "Frozen" and Amal Al-Agroobi for "The Brain That Sings" (UAE)

FIPRESCI:

Short: Ahmed Yassin - "Children Of God" (Iraq, UK, Hungary)

Documentary: Zeina Daccache - "Scheherazade's Diary" (Lebanon)

Feature: Mohammed Khan - "Factory Girl" (Egypt, UAE)

Emirates NBD People's Choice Award:

Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee - "Frozen" (US)

Amal Al-Agroobi - "The Brain That Sings" (UAE)

Muhr Emirati:

Special Mention: Mohammad Fikree - "Girl & It" (UAE)

Best Director: Muna Al Ali - "Concealment" (UAE)

Special Jury Prize: Claudia Corbelli and Greg White - "The Neighbour" (UAE)

Best Film: Abdullah Hasan Ahmed and Khalid Al Mahmood - "Don't Leave Me" (UAE)

Muhr AsiaAfrica:

Muhr AsiaAfrica Short:

Special Mention: Cédric Ido "Twaaga" (Burkina Faso, France)

Best Director: Sandeep Ray - "Thin Arms" (India)

Special Jury Prize: Halla Kim - "The Way Back" (South Korea)

Best Film: Askhat Kuchinchirekov "Gas Is Over" (Kazakhstan)

Muhr AsiaAfrica Documentary:

Special Mention: Lynn Lee and James Leong - "Wukan: The Flame Of Democracy" (Singapore)

Best Director: Pin Pin Tan - "To Singapore With Love" (Singapore)

Special Jury Prize: Sara Rastegar - "My Red Shoes" (France)

Best Film: Yoshiko Hashimoto and Shigeki Kinoshita - "The Horses Of Fukushima" (Japan)

Muhr AsiaAfrica Feature:

Special Mention: Souleymane Démé for his role in "Grigris" (France, Chad)

Special Mention: Ritesh Batra for the screenplay of "The Lunchbox" (India)

Best Actress: Yeo Yann Yann - "Ilo Ilo" (Singapore)

Best Actor: Irrfan Khan - "The Lunchbox" (France, Germany, India)

Best Director: Tsai Ming Liang - "Stray Dogs" (Taiwan, France)

Muhr Arab Documentary:

Special Mention: Zeina Daccache - "Scheherazade's Diary" (Lebanon)

Best Director: Salma El Tarzi - "Underground On The Surface" (Egypt)

Special Jury Prize: Diala Kachmar and Carole Abboud,Guardians - "Of Lost Time" (Lebanon, UAE)

Best Film: Karim Amer - "The Square" (US, Egypt)

Special Jury Prize: Sepehr Seifi - "Fish & Cat" (Iran)

Best Film: Ang Hwee Sim, Anthony Chen, Wahyuni A. Hadi,- "Ilo Ilo" (Singapore)

Muhr Arab Short:

Special Mention: Camille Salameh for his role in "Troubled Waters" (Lebanon)

Special Mention: Ahmed Yassin - "Children Of God" (Iraq, UK, Hungary)

Best Director: Ali Cherri - "The Disquiet" (Lebanon, France)

Special Jury Prize: Haider Rashid - "The Deep" (Iraq, Italy)

Best Film: Bavi Yassin, Nore Maatala - "The Lost Voice" (Belgium, Iraq)

Muhr Arab Feature:

Special Mention: Mohammed Amin Benamraoui - "Adios Carmen" (Morocco, Belgium, UAE)

Special Mention: Raouia for her roles in "Rock The Casbah" (Morocco, France) and "Pillow Secrets" (Morocco)

Best Actress: Yasmine Raees - "Factory Girl" (Egypt, UAE)

Best Actor: Hassan Badida - "They Are The Dogs" (Morocco)

Best Director: Hany Abu Assad - "Omar" (Palestine, UAE)

Special Jury Prize: Nabil Ayouch - "They Are The Dogs" (Morocco)

Best Film: Waleed Zuaiter - "Omar" (Palestine, UAE)

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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Agencies
August 5,2020

New Delhi, Aug 5: Playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam on Wednesday confirmed testing positive for COVID-19 with 'mild' symptoms.

The 74-year-old musician shared the information through a video message posted on his official Facebook page.

In the video, the singer detailed about having a little "discomfort" for two days, stating he had chest congestion along with cold and on-off fever, which led him to get tested for the virus.

However, he also mentioned that he could have stayed at home in self-quarantine, as advised, but did not want to put his family in danger, and hence got admitted by his own choice, to recover quickly.

"I am in good hand, I am in good health. Nobody has to worry about this. The fever has subsided, and in two days I'll be discharged and I'll be home. Thanks for the concern," he said in the video message.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Actor Bhumi Pednekar on Monday pledged to feed over 550 impoverished families as a mark of tribute to late Bollywood actor and her 'Sonchiriya' co-star Sushant Singh Rajput.

Pednekar made the announcement through an Instagram post where she shared a picture of the departed actor and penned down a note along with it.

"I pledge to feed 550 impoverished families through the Ek Saath Foundation in the memory of my dear friend. Let us show compassion and love towards everyone that is in need, now more than ever," Pednekar wrote.

The two actors shared screen space in the Abhishek Chaubey directorial which continues to be a critically acclaimed film.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai's Bandra residence earlier this month. The detailed post-mortem report has also confirmed that he died by "asphyxia due to hanging."

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