It is less than four months until the start of the 13th Dubai International Film Festival. And if you have been keeping an eye on the event’s Twitter feed, you may have noticed film recommendations started popping up in the last week or two.
They include: sci-fi drama Arrival, starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker; the Julia Roberts movie Wonder; Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, starring Richard Gere; and Robert Zemeckis's Allied, starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard.
Several of those movies are scheduled to be released towards the end of this year or early next year. Does this mean they will be screening at Diff, which runs from December 7 to 14?
The official word from festival organisers is that they are simply films that have been generating a lot of buzz on the international festival circuit.
Sources at the festival did say they would love to screen all of the films that have been mentioned on Twitter, but we will not know whether they made the cut until the official announcements start, probably in early October.
In the meantime, it is fun to speculate. So here are some of the most interesting options that might make it into this year’s Diff programme.
The Founder
John Lee Hancock’s biopic stars Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the man who bought the fledgling McDonald’s restaurant chain in 1961 and is largely credited with turning it into a global burger behemoth. The film is due to be released globally on December 16 – just two days after this year’s Diff ends, so it’s ideally timed for a Dubai premiere.
Jackie
Another biopic, this time with Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in Pablo Larrain’s movie. The supporting cast includes Greta Gerwig and John Hurt. We already know the film will have its world premiere at the Venice festival next month, and with no general release date as yet, a regional premiere at Diff seems like a possibility.
Gold
The drama directed by Stephen Gaghan stars Matthew McConaughey as an overweight and serially unlucky man who becomes an unlikely explorer when he heads deep into the Indonesian jungle in search of gold. With its cinema release planned for Christmas Day, Diff seems an ideal setting for a first peek.
20th Century Women
This one is a heart-warming comedy from rising indie director and screenwriter Mike Mills. Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning head the cast in this tale of a single mother trying to teach her teenage son about life, love and freedom in the late 1970s. The movie will have its world premiere at New York Film Festival in October.
Wilson
This comedy-drama adapted by Craig Johnson from a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, who has also written the screenplay, has Woody Harrelson in the lead. He stars as a lonely, neurotic, possibly autistic man who reconnects with his ex-wife (Laura Dern), and subsequently meets his teenage daughter for the first time. The film is not due for release until next March, and with no festival screenings planned as yet, Dubai could pull off a coup if it nets the world premiere.
Lion
Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman star in Garth Davis's adaptation of Saroo Brierley's autobiographical book A Long Way Home. It tells the story of a young boy who is separated from his family, adopted by an Australian couple and eventually finds his birth parents 20 years later using Google Earth. It is classic festival fare, and although it won't release globally until next year, it is scheduled to be released in the United States on November 25, and that means Diff will have to settle for a regional premiere if it makes the list.
Norman: The Moderate Rise & Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
This one is genuine blockbuster fare, and any of the stellar cast – Richard Gere, Steve Buscemi, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Dan Stevens – would be a welcome a sight on the red carpet in Dubai. Gere, who brought his film Arbitrage to the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2012, stars as Norman, a small-time New York businessman who finds himself at the centre of political intrigue when he inadvertently befriends a soon-to-be globally important politician, with disastrous consequences. The film is due to go on general release in June next year.
Arrival
Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker join forces in Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi drama that is based on a short story by Ted Chiang called Story of Your Life. They are tasked with solving the mystery of the appearance of numerous alien spacecraft around the world as humanity teeters on the brink of extinction. The movie will have its premiere in Venice.
War Machine
This one is little bit of a stab in the dark, as the festival hasn’t yet mentioned it on Twitter, and the Netflix movie doesn’t even have a release date. However, director David Michôd and the cast, including Brad Pitt, did spend several weeks in the UAE last year filming the war comedy in Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah. Could a Dubai premiere in December be the perfect end to the story? We’ll have to wait and see.
• The 13th Dubai International Film Festival runs from December 7 to 14. Visit www.dubaifilmfest.com for the latest information
cnewbould@thenational.ae
