The Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) yesterday announced that the second edition of the festival will take place from October 26-30 in Doha. Entries for the 2010 Festival will begin on June 7, a DTFF spokesperson said. “A priority of the 2010 Festival will be to increase the Arab programming of the festival slate and enhance educational initiatives year round and during the festival to uncover local and regional film talent,” the official said. The second annual DTFF is expected to build on the success of the inaugural festival, which showcased an internationally diverse and tightly-curated film programme with a focus on Arab cinema, public participation through large community events, and educational filmmaking programmes, the official said. DTFF also announced that the second edition will introduce an Arab film competition for ‘Best Arab Film’ and ‘Best Arab Filmmaker’, which will be chosen by a jury. “The second DTFF will also feature two audience awards, one for ‘Best Narrative Film’ and another for ‘Best Documentary Film’. Both the two Arab film competitions and the audience awards are each worth $100,000. “DTFF executive director Amanda Palmer, along with Tribeca’s chief creative officer Geoffrey Gilmore, will lead the 2010 programming team of Oscar nominated Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti and Tribeca’s David Kwok and Genna Terranova,” the official said. Palmer said: “We look forward to building on the successes of the first Doha Tribeca Film Festival and providing a strong showcase of cinema for Qatari and international film audiences.” “The inaugural DTFF showed us that film can do more than just entertain; it can educate, inspire and unite communities. To that end we are already busy with our year round educational programmes which provide Qataris a platform to tell their stories to the world through the universal language of film,” she added. Gilmore said: “The Arab filmmaking competition for the 2010 Festival is hoped to provide support, awareness and audience development for Arab filmmakers and firmly place these films on the centre stage.” Submission forms and complete information regarding eligibility will be available at www.dtff.com starting April 1. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=343705&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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