DIFF day two features an ambitious Dubai produced animated feature

Gulf News

DIFF day two at DIFF features the IWC awards and a home grown animated feature. The second day at the Dubai International Film Festival features an ambitious animated feature film based on an Islamic figure and plays host to the IWC Awards. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

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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