The Abu Dhabi Film Festival on Tuesday announced its jury members for this year's edition, which kicks off on 23 October.
The 10-day festival will screen films across the following sections: Narrative Feature, New Horizons, Documentary Feature, Emirates Film Competition, Short Film Competition as well as the Child Protection, FIPRESCI and NETPAC awards.
Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, known for the Yacoubian Building (2005) and most recently The Blue Elephant (2014), will head the Child Protection Competition jury, alongside Faisla Al-Shamary, the director of the UAE Ministry of Interior Child Protection Centre, Heyam Al-Juma (UAE), Alessandra Priante (Italy) and Egypt's Nelly Karim.
Meanwhile, the Short Film Competition Jury is headed by Bassam Al-Thawadi, a Bahraini filmmaker who is also a graduate of the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. The jury includes Hala Lotfy, award winning filmmaker whose debut feature Coming Forth by Day screened at the ADFF in 2012. Lotfy is also the founder of the Egyptian production house Hassala Productions.
The Documentary Feature Competition team of the jury is led by Brooklyn-based filmmaker and cinematographer Christina Voros and includes Egyptian-American filmmaker Sherif Elkatsha, who captured the mayhem of the Egyptian capital's streets in Cairo Drive (2013).
Other heads of the jury include Irrfan Khan (Narrative Feature), Catherine Dussart (New Horizons), Farida Benlyazid (Emirates Film Competition) and Kirill Razlogov (FIPRESCI and NETPAC awards).