With barely time to brush the nacho crumbs off our faces from the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which closed on Saturday, the Doha Tribeca Film Festival springs into action tomorrow night, just an hour's flight away.
At only three years old, DTFF is the youngest sibling of the regional film festivals, but with the Doha Film Institute continuing to make groundbreaking inroads in the development of filmmaking across the Arab world, the event has become an essential pit-stop on the cultural calendar. Big-name movies and big-name stars are almost guaranteed at the Katara Cultural Village on the Qatari capital's waterfront.
The headline act of DTFF11 is undoubtedly Black Gold, the Arabian epic co-produced by the DFI and filmed partly in Doha with a stellar line-up of cast and crew, many of whom are expected to take to the red carpet when the film opens the festival.
But Black Gold shouldn't be hogging the limelight, with numerous other titles worthy of a headline act. Other "must sees" include the Gulf premiere of Where Do We Go Now?, Nadine Labaki's highly celebrated drama that arrives after winning the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and is likely to be Lebanon's selection in the Oscars next year. Then there's Michelle Yeoh's much-anticipated portrayal of Aung San Suu Kyi in The Lady, directed by Luc Besson. Fresh off the back of box office success in the US comes the adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's bestselling book The Help. For something a little different, there's The Artist, a contemporary black-and-white silent that pays homage to the early days of the silver screen.
Running alongside the film schedule is a series of Doha Talks from the cinema world, including a behind-the-scenes look at The Adventures of Tintin, the new motion-capture 3D animation from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. The talk will be presented by the multi-Academy and Bafta award-winner Joe Letteri,the director of WETA Digital, with a special preview screening of the film afterwards in the Katara Opera House.
The Super-Size Me director Morgan Spurlock is presenting another Doha Talk, this time on the power of documentaries for change, particularly those using his uniquely droll style. The director is also bringing his latest feature Comic-Con IV: A Fan's Hope to the festival.
In line with the output of the Doha Film Institute, the activities of the festival aren't all major screenings and high-profile discussions. For the past five months, the institute has been holding workshops across the region in which participants have been turning their personal stories about the Arab Spring into video shorts. Called "Harrer Harrer" (Liberate Liberate) the programme has so far involved around 140 people from nine Arab cities, and a video installation featuring 50 of the stories will be unveiled at the festival. Another addition to this year's celebrations is a competition held with the French celebrity and film photographer Brigitte Lacombe. DFI recently announced that it was coming on board as a financier for the adaptation by Mira Nair of Mohsin Hamid's book The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and the winner will join Lacombe on location in India later this year as she captures images from the film.
The third DTFF is set to close on October 29, with reports that the British singer Leona Lewis will warble as the curtains come down, leaving the regional film industry with just over a month to prepare itself before another four-letter acronym - DIFF (Dubai International Film Festival) - starts stirring things up again.
