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Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF 2014), powered by twofour54, today announced that this year’s Career Achievement Awards will go to French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb and American producer Edward Pressman for their outstanding contribution to world cinema. Meanwhile, Jordanian director Naji Abu Nowar has been chosen for the Variety Arab Filmmaker of the Year Award.
Abu Dhabi Film Festival director Ali Al Jabri said: “ADFF 2014 salutes French-Algerian filmmaker and producer Rachid Bouchareb, whose three films Dust of Life (1995), Days of Glory (2006) and Outside the Law (2010) were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Since the beginning of his career, Rachid Bouchareb has explored the complex relationships between France and its former colonies. Young filmmakers can take the cue from this master storyteller to convincingly portray the yet uncaptured perspectives on their life and society and project them onto the world stage.”
“This year, we also take the opportunity to honour the prolific American film producer Edward Pressman who was involved in the making of over 80 motion pictures, each influenced by his wide and eclectic cinema experience. Over the course of a 30 year career in film, his deliberate choice of working with new filmmakers has led to priceless discoveries of fresh talent, he is known for fostering the careers of the young and inspired. We honour both these legendary filmmakers with the ADFF 2014 Career Achievement Awards.”
Both ADFF 2014 Career Achievement Awards will be presented at the Festival’s opening event on October 23 at Emirates Palace.
TWO MEN IN TOWN directed by Rachid Bouchareb, starring Forest Whitaker as an ex-convict and a Muslim convert, will feature as part of the ADFF 2014 Showcase. The film had entered for competition at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. ADFF will host a public conversation with Rachid Bouchareb on October 24, a rare opportunity to discover the life and career of this distinguished director and producer.
Edward Pressman’s indelible mark in cinema comes from his having fostered the careers of filmmakers such as Brian De Palma, Terrence Malick, Oliver Stone, Kathryn Bigelow, David Byrne, Charles Burnett, Jason Reitman, to name a few. He has also worked with international directors such as Wolfgang Petersen, the Taviani brothers, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, David Hare, Bo Widerberg, Zhang Yimou and Werner Herzog.
The Variety Arab Filmmaker of the Year Award will go to Jordanian filmmaker Naji Abu Nowar. Nowar’s debut feature THEEB, which had received SANAD support in its development and post-production stage, won the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at this year’s Venice Film Festival, was screened in Toronto International Film Festival and is competing in ADFF 2014’s New Horizons category.
Shot in the Jordanian desert with real Bedouins, THEEB is a stunning, intimate epic set during WW1, presenting a society in the cusp of change and tipping its hat to classical Westerns even in the way it plays with questions of moral absolutes. The award ceremony will take place on October 27, 6.30pm at Auberge in Emirates Palace.
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