'Descendants,' 'Marilyn' to fly to Dubai

The eighth edition from the Dubai Film Festival revealed its selection of 171 photos from 56 areas on Monday, including Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" and British drama "My Week With Marilyn." The 2010 fest, which opens 12 ,. 7 using the world preem of "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," will host 46 world premieres and 78 Middle Eastern preems and include a number of gala photos, including Bollywood romance "Ladies versus. Ough Bahl," Disney's "The Muppets," Germany comedy "Three-Quarter Moon," Italian immigrant drama "Terraferma" and Egyptian romance "An Entire One." Lifetime achievement honours will be provided to Werner Herzog, Egyptian thesp Gamil Rateb and Indian composer A.R. Rahman. Talent likely to touch lower within the emirate throughout the fest include Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Anil Kapoor, Jum Seydoux and "Mission: Impossible" helmer Kaira Bird. Payne, Peter Weir, Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh will also be confirmed to go to the fest. Arab talent includes Amr Waked, Ezzat Abou Ouf, Lebleba and Yousra from Egypt Ahmed El Zein from Lebanon and Mohammed Miftah from The other agents. A lot more than 70 photos in the Arabian Peninsula will feature within the fest this season, and 89 films will vie for that Muhr Honours, with prize money adding up to $600,000. This season, DIFF may have a unique concentrate on Germany with six photos in the territory: "Three Quarter's Moon," "Burnout," "Combat Girl," "Westwind," "Under Snow" and Georg Wilhelm Pabst's 1929 pic "Pandora's Box." "This eighth edition, a lot more than every other before it, crystallizes our standing like a complete cinema ecosystem," stated DIFF chairman Abdulhamid Juma. "Although we're a youthful festival, we now have electricity costs every year since our launch in 2004, refining our program, building exclusive competitions, strengthening our industry choices, even while planting seed products over the Arab, Asian, African and global cinema landscape. This season our harvest is abundant." Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com