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Abu Dhabi film fest gets an Oscar boost

By Staff Reporter ABU DHABI - The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) has just received an international boost as seven of its last year's movies (and one from 2010) have been nominated for 11 Oscars.

"We are very happy about these films being nominated," said Peter Scarlet, Executive Director of the ADFF.

"Of course it makes an impact for our festival. It's like having guests in your house, who then go on to be nominated for prestigious awards," he told Khaleej Times. With already 12 film awards worldwide, including three Golden Bear at the 61^st Berlin International Film Festival -- the first Iranian movie to win a Golden Bear -- Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation" was no surprise when nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Academy Awards earlier this week. What came as a surprise, though, was "A Separation" also being nominated for the Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars."Asghar Farhadi had already been named Variety's Middle East Filmmaker of the Year during our event," pointed out Scarlet. The movie also won the Special Jury Award at ADFF last October.

The film is about a married couple faced with a difficult decision to improve the life of their only child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

Only five foreign-language films have won the Oscar for Best Screenplay (the most recent one was Pedro Almodovar's "Talk To Her" in 2002). No Iranian film has ever won an Oscar in a major category.

Some observers are already saying Farhadi has a chance at the screenplay award though he will have to beat Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris") and three others to 
do it. Other movies picked for the ADFF last year now nominated for Oscars include "Albert Nobbs" for best actress -- Glenn Close -- who portrays Albert Nobbs, an Irish hotel waiter hiding a secret beneath a life of loneliness and isolation. Janet McTeer was nominated too for best supporting actress.

The film also earned a nomination for its makeup, Martial Conneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle.

The ADFF's 2011 Opening film, "Monsieur Lazhar", directed by Philippe Falardeau, was also nominated for Best Foreign Language film. Two ADFF films were nominated for Best Documentary Feature: "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front", directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman, which screened in the environmental competition, and "Pina", Wim Wenders' 3-D biography of choreographer Pina Bausch.

Also seen in Abu Dhabi last October, "The Ides of March" was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (by George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon), while "Chico & Rita" by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, screened at ADFF 2010 got a nomination for Best Animated Feature.

Another great news for Abu Dhabi's film industry is "The Help", a movie co-produced by Imagenation Abu Dhabi, which got four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

© Khaleej Times 2012