00:00Day 2 here at Dubai International Film Festival. 23 movies have been showcased tonight. Room
00:14actor Jacob Trombley, whose movie premiered on the opening night, gave us his reaction
00:18on being nominated for a Screen Actors Award.
00:22I'm really excited actually. I was just like laying in bed watching TV in my mom's room
00:29and she told me that this happened and I was just like, what? Really?
00:34Dubai produced animated film Bilal, which tells a story about a little boy and his sister
00:38who were abducted into slavery, gets a red carpet gala this evening. British actor Adewale
00:43Akunye Obaje talks about his experience in working in animation.
00:47It was such an honour to be invited to be a part of this kind of project because I'd
00:52been looking to explore the animated world a bit more and then this opportunity came
00:58and I jumped at it because, you know, first of all, this is the first fully funded Dubai
01:06based production. I mean, the level of technical accomplishment in this, it really is groundbreaking.
01:17It's really going to change the bar, how animation is done because there's a fine line
01:23between reality and the animated world and that line has been made much thinner with
01:29this movie. I mean, it really pushed the bar with it so I was excited for that and of course
01:36it's a true story and, you know, as an actor you always like to work on projects that really
01:43resonate because it gives you a lot more to go on, you know, a cultural, historical
01:49icon to be the lead voice of that, you know, very, very tempting.
01:54Also making an appearance tonight on the red carpet is Empire star Terrence Howard.
01:58I actually didn't think we would make it out past the pilot, I thought, because it was
02:05the questions that it raised I thought were very specific to the black community. I didn't
02:12know that every other culture might have some relation to what has been taking place
02:18and some of the issues that we would get. And the acceptance and the way it's been garnished
02:24and beloved by many other cultures is a testament to Lee Daniels, it's a testament to Danny
02:29Strong and to Brian Grazer and to Fox because Fox, I think if this had been on ABC or NBC
02:36or CBS, no one would know about it but Fox actually stood behind this potential quagmire
02:45and said no, this is something that needs to be discussed.
02:49Also on the agenda on day two are the IWC awards where they're giving away $100,000
02:53US dollars to a Gulf filmmaker for a project in development. We caught up with the legendary
02:58Hen Sabri who is a jury member in this year's IWC.
03:02For the first time I'm in a jury that reads scripts, not watches films. I'm used to watching
03:08films as a jury member but reading scripts is a lonelier experience because you're reading
03:14at home and you make your own film and the beauty of scripts is that you and I will read
03:20them but we will not imagine the same film. We will imagine it, each one of us will imagine
03:26the film from their point of view, from our luggage and from our cinematic DNA.
03:32So I'm looking forward to the jury meeting this afternoon with Henny Abu-Assad and the IWC
03:38chairman and the DIFF people because I think it's going to be a heated discussion.
03:45The filmmakers are all young, it's their first or second feature, they're all from the GCC
03:52and there's many women and this is something I'm very proud about.
03:55That's it for day 2. Remember for more news and information log on to gulfnews.com.
04:00I'm Samar Ganavati reporting live from the Red Carpet at the Dubai International Film Festival.
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