SANAA: By nightfall, thousands of anti-government protesters in a scrappy tent city in Yemen’s capital Sanaa catch their breath and begin to cheer musicians clambering onto a rickety stage. "Let’s give a round of applause for the big hit, "Mother of the Martyr, Bride of Blood", their host shouts. Sometimes jubilant, sometimes mournful, protest songs …

Tache Art Gallery in Designopolis is currently hosting an exhibition titled “Pulse,” featuring the works of 47 emerging artists. The show sounds like an extraordinary feat, as putting an exhibit with as many young artists can prove to be quite the production. The exhibition presents work encompassing a myriad of styles, approaches and mediums. Sadly, …

“Only 10 years go, the whole Gulf region lived in a total cinematic drought,” writes Masoud Amralla Al-Ali, artistic director of the Dubai International Film Festival and curator of a series of Gulf-based films at Arab Shorts 2011 in his program note. “The cinematic image that others had of us was always either stupid Bedouins …

Christie’s and Sotheby’s hold their big autumn art sales in New York starting this week, with both houses looking to Pablo Picasso to excite a robust market. The prominence of important works by Picasso, Matisse and other modern masters in the impressionist and modern art sales at Christie’s on Tuesday and Sotheby’s on Wednesday reflects …

Qatar’s annual film festival gave its top award to filmmaker Merzak Allouache’s production of "Normal," a movie that follows disillusioned Algerian youth in the wake of the "Arab Spring" revolutions. The award, which carries a bonus of $100,000, was announced at the third annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival awards ceremony this week, alongside seven other …

In the Arab world, youth are a constant hot topic in political and economic policies and discussion. As the world population officially reaches 7 billion this week, children make up the vast majority and are widely celebrated as “the future.” But in this context, the experience of actually being a child is secondary. Not so …

When the Arab Shorts fest first opened in December 2009 at the Goethe Institute in Egypt, it filled a void, Goethe director Gunther Hasenkamp told Daily News Egypt at the opening of Arab Shorts 2011 on Thursday. After much ado, Goethe had decided that in the absence of another venue, it was an imperative for …

Masterworks of Islamic art will once again be on view at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, which next week reopens an exhaustive installation following an eight-year renovation. New York’s biggest and most comprehensive art museum unveils on November 1 its "New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South …

Egyptian film is a staple attraction in the regional fest circuit. No Arab fest can do without one or more Egyptian features, for obvious reasons. Egyptian films remain the most prominent and most popular industry in the Middle East. Egyptian film stars are always guaranteed to bring glitz and glamour to any Arab fest, attracting …

Russia’s historic Bolshoi Theater will finally raise its curtain on Friday after a massive, six-year overhaul that aims to create a state-of-the-art space for its world-renowned ballet and opera troupe. Stars including prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and French soprano Natalie Dessay will tread the new stage at a lavish gala attended by Russian President Dmitry …

The Arab Spring of pro-democracy uprisings features prominently — both directly and more subtly — in the selections at the third annual Doha Tribeca Film Festival, kicking off in the Qatari capital this week. The festival, launched in 2009 in the tiny Gulf Arab state, seeks to showcase the work of Arab filmmakers who this …

The Church of St. John the Baptist in Maadi has been known for hosting regular art exhibitions that aim at bringing people of all backgrounds, religions and nationalities together in the house of worship. This initiative, called “Caravan,” was founded by Paul Gordon Chandler, the rector of this Episcopal Church. The idea was to use …

Tintin always is flawless, courageous and heroic — right up to the point of being cartoonesque. That left British actor Jamie Bell, 25, with the challenge of turning the character into a believable, flesh-and-bones intrepid reporter for Steven Spielberg’s "The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn." Granted, Bell’s acting was enhanced by performance-capture technology, …

Thursday night, in the stark warehouse space of the Townhouse Gallery, a small crowd of young men and women stood around drinking soda and smoking cigarettes. Many wore track jackets and oversized baseball caps, baggy clothes and Adidas shoes. Some posed to have their pictures taken in front of graffiti adorning the walls, folding their …

French film “Chicken with Plums” was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, scooping the Best Narrative Film prize and a monetary award of $100,000 at the closing ceremony held on Friday evening. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s follow-up to 2007 animation blockbuster “Persepolis” is a whimsical love story …

The regional film festivals’ fight over the limited pool of Arab films has intensified with every passing year—a fight not only to justify their existence but to matter. The cultural, political and economic changes spurred by the Arab Spring have caused this pool to shrink even further this year, and thus Morocco, the sole functioning …

"Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!" As Tintin prepares to take on the world in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster, the fearless boy reporter’s adventures are hotting up at home. Thirty years in the making, the Avatar-style film hits screens worldwide next week as the Belgium-born comic-book hero fends off racism charges, squabbles over his legacy, and …

British author Julian Barnes on Tuesday won the Man Booker Prize, one of the highest-profile awards in English-language literature, at the fourth attempt for his novel "The Sense of an Ending." Barnes picked up the £50,000 ($80,000) award, which recognizes the best work of fiction by an author from the Commonwealth or the Republic of …

The Zamalek Art Gallery is currently hosting a sculpture exhibition by artist Gamal Abdel Nasser. An artist with a steady list of exhibitions since 1983, his sculptures have evolved and matured while always retaining a distinct style. The exhibition showcases a myriad of his styles, ranging from colorful masks and torsos, to figural representations and …

  With no prior knowledge of Greek artist Yorgos Papageorgiou or his work, this was one of the few times I attend an opening with no preconceptions. But what I found at the Mashrabiya Gallery was a truly pleasant surprise.   It’s been some time since I came across an exhibition that does not attempt …

It has insults, rivalries and bitter accusations. The battle for Britain’s most prestigious literary award is proving to be a page-turner. Five judges, led by a former British spymaster, are meeting Tuesday to choose the winner of the Booker Prize for fiction, which brings a 50,000 pound ($82,000) purse, a big sales boost for the …

On Friday night, Egyptians and expats gathered under the glow of orange and blue lights outside Darb 1718 for an evening of music celebrating the diplomatic and cultural relationship between Egypt and Poland. A group of Polish and Egyptian musicians, led by Maria Pomianowska, performed music to accompany Arabic translations of poetry by Polish Nobel …

By Joseph Fahim The past decade has been quite uneventful for award-winning German filmmaker Wim Wenders (“Wings of Desire,” Paris,’Texas”). Big duds such as “Don’t Come Knocking” and “Palermo Shooting” prompted critics to write him off; his best years appeared to be far behind him. But after three years of silence, Wenders finally makes a triumphant …

BUCHAREST: Estonian short animated film "Body Memory" directed by Ulo Pikkov was late Saturday awarded the top prize at the Anim’est animation festival in Bucharest. The nine-minute film focuses on a premise that the body retains memories of a person’s ancestors and will now be Anim’est’s submission for the 2012 pan-European Cartoon d’OR prize. "The …

BERLIN: Internationally acclaimed Algerian author Boualem Sansal Sunday received the annual German Book Trade Peace Prize and said that people everywhere were rising up against dictatorship. Sansal, 62, received the award for his open criticism of the regime in Algeria and his drive for "freedom of speech, culture and religion" in his native country, said …

Once again, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival cements its reputation as the regional Mecca for documentaries, thanks to an exciting selection featuring some of the biggest names in documentary filmmaking along with newcomers making a splash with their remarkable films. The most notable of the biopics featured in the fifth edition of the fest are …

Amid the accustomed razzle-dazzle, the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival kicked off Thursday evening, commencing the official start of a regional festival season surly to be shaped by the Arab Spring. Devoid of politics, the sole controversial incident of the evening came prior to the start of the show when Egyptian film …