The latest edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) has – to use the industry lingo – wrapped for another year. The stars have flown home, clutching their awards, their suitcases and clothes straining at the seams from all the eating and shopping.
Year on year, the films have become bigger, the stars more glamorous and the venues more crowded. And yet while the ultra-glamour of this year’s venue at the Emirates Palace befits the glitz of Hollywood and Bollywood, it perhaps doesn’t reflect the new direction the festival has taken over the past few years.
We say this as devoted film buffs and lovers of the arts. ADFF has been more locally-targeted over the past three years, with films focusing on the Middle East and the festival feeling distinctly Arab and Emirati. This has been an enormous success and put the festival squarely on the map as something different: witness the success of the opening film this year, the Emirati-made From A to B.
A new venue could provide a more, shall we say, democratic space, a place where all those who make up the burgeoning film community of Abu Dhabi and the UAE could come together. Some attendees this year might have felt a bit put off by the grand surroundings of the Emirates Palace.
Certainly, in contrast to the energetic, even boisterous, atmosphere of Cannes, there was at times a curious sedateness to the Palace, a space more used to welcoming dignitaries and ambassadors than scruffy-bearded creatives. It was also a shame to see the end of the open-air screenings of the past, especially as the cool season has begun in the country.
But what would be a more suitable venue? Much as this newspaper, fresh from welcoming Kareem Abdul-Jabar to our newsroom, would be willing to roll out the red carpet again, there are venues in the city that would better reflect Arab heritage, Emirati glamour and Middle Eastern creativity than our humble offices. Tell us where, dear readers. Answers, as they used to say on children’s TV, on a postcard to the usual address. Or email us at letters@thenational.ae.
