Cate Blanchett to Head Jury for Filmmaker Award at Dubai International Film Festival

Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) announced yesterday that actress Cate Blanchett will head a jury tasked with selecting the winner of the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Award. The award, worth $100,000 USD, will enable one very lucky director to transmit his vision from screenplay to the silver screen. Of the hundreds of submissions, four on the shortlist are “Nothing Doing in Baghdad” by Maysoon Pachachi, “The Sleeping Tree” by Mohammed Rashed Buali, “Girls in the Know” by Abdullah Al Kaabi, and “From A to B” by Ali F. Mostafa. The directors represent a medley of Arab countries, including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq. The jury will also include Georges Kern, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen; Abdul Hami Juma, chairman of DIFF; Masoud Amralla al-Ali, artistic director of DIFF; and Olivier Père, the general director of the Paris-based Arte France Cinema. The winner will be announced in December at an awards ceremony in Dubai during the festival.