The festival will also be hosting an in conversation event with Jake Gyllenhaal, who has appeared in Venice-opener Everest and Toronto-opener Demolition this year.ĭIFF will present four lifetime achievement awards in 2015: French actress Catherine Deneuve ( Dancer In The Dark) will be a recipient, as will Egyptian actor Ezzat Al Alayli ( Alexandrie Pourquoi?), French-Tunisian actor Sami Bouajila ( The Siege) and Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah ( The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).
The full line-up features 134 films from 60 countries, including 55 world premieres and international premieres, 46 MENA premieres, 11 Middle East premieres and 17 GCC premieres. Other films screening include: Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight James Vanderbilt’s Truth Peter Landesman’s Concussion Nicholas Hytner’s The Lady In The Van and Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol. The festival will be closed by Adam McKay’s The Big Short, which has an ensemble cast featuring Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Christian Bale and Brad Pitt, and recently premiered at Los Angeles’ AFI Fest (Nov 5-12). Lead actress Brie Larson has already received nominations at the Gotham Awards and yesterday’s Independent Spirits for her performance, and is a favourite for the Academy Awards next year. The film, an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel, tells the story of a young mother and her 5-year-old son who are held captive in a small room.
Lenny Abrahamson’s Oscar-contender Room will open the 12 th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) this year, which will run December 9-16.