There were not only ups and downs, laughter, joy, great movies and positive outcomes for the future film industry here, but also much confusion, caused by the lack of time for proper organising of the event.

“An international film festival takes one year to prepare,” pointed out MEIFF Director Jon Fitzgerald, while MEIFF Executive Director Nashwa Al Ruwaini declared that the entire festival was put together in less than four months.

“Now we have a whole year to organise the next edition of the festival,” she reassured the guests.

Sadly, the truly wonderful opening night ceremony was not matched by the closing gala. After severe delays, the evening started with red carpet arrivals, mostly stars from the In the Valley of Elah’ and Caramel’, as well as Bollywood actors and actresses. In the main auditorium, where extreme air-conditioning kept the audience shivering, sneezing and coughing, the ceremony began, quite surprisingly, with the same show presented in the opening gala. The only difference was an added number of traditional Emirati singing and dancing.

Black Pearl trophy

The awards ceremony started quite abruptly without any explanation about the Black Pearl trophy, which was designed specially for MEIFF by Emirati artist Azza Al Qubaisi, or any mention of the large cash prizes that accompanied the awards.

Many of the speeches, including the official ones, were in Arabic language only, although a large number of guests were non-Arabic speakers.

“That is why I chose to speak in English, when I was presented with the award,” said Emirati film-maker Fadel Al Muhairi, who along with Hani Al Shaibani, won the UAE Film-makers Award.

“Wait for us a couple of years and you will see the Emirati movies,” he promised the international audience.

The Black Pearl Awards went to Ben X, produced by Peter Bouckaert and directed by Nic Balthazar, for the Best Feature Film (cash prize of Dh300,000); Michael James Rowland of Lucky Miles was chosen Best New Director (Feature Film), plus a cash prize of Dh300,000; the ensemble cast of Caramel, Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gisele Aouad and Sihame Haddad won the Best Actress and also Dh300,000 cash prize; Carl Markovics of ‘The Counterfeiters’ was chosen Best Actor (Dh 300,000 cash prize); ‘We Are Together’ by Paul Taylor won the Best Documentary Film and Dh300,000 cash prize; Bawke, produced by Gundny Hummelvoll and directed by Hisham Zaman won the Best Short Film and a cash prize of Dh100,000; Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont of Man On The Pavement won the Best New Director (Short Film) and Dh100,000 cash prize; ‘I Met The Walrus’ by Josh Raskin won the Best Animated Short Film and a cash prize of Dh100,000.

Also announced during the ceremony were the Hayah Film Competition, Variety Middle East Filmmaker of the Year Award (Nadine Labaki), UAE Filmmakers of the Year and Audience Choice Awards for Best Short Film (Tanghi Argentini), Best Fiction (Persepolis) and Best Documentary (Here and Now).

Iraq story

The awards ceremony was followed by the screening of Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah, considered by many to be one of the best films of the year.

Jake McLaughlin, one of the supporting actors in the movie, was actually a US soldier who spent eight months in Iraq during the initial invasion period.

“Since the beginning of time, war is the worst possible thing you can experience… You become desensitised and it leaves you with post traumatic stress. After a while of searching for weapons of mass destructions and not finding any, everyone of us wondered why we were there,” said McLaughlin about his experience.

He really believes that In the Valley of Elah strikes the right chord and tells a realistic story.

Despite all the organisational hiccups, MEIFF brought to Abu Dhabi a truly amazing selection of films, from Atonement to Persepolis and from Caramel’ to When the People Spoke.

GCC films

A whole section was dedicated to GCC films, which included feature and short movies from Saudi Arabia, a country where cinema is still forbidden. Finally, MEIFF brought true hopes for the future film industry in the UAE with the announcement of setting up a film laboratory in Abu Dhabi, as well as film production incentives for both local and international filmmakers.