An excited crowd of thousands gathered on Tuesday night at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) for the world premiere of Arabian epic Black Gold which kicked off the five-day community oriented festival.

Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, Black Gold has in the lead Antonio Banderas, Freida Pinto, Tahar Rahim, Riz Ahmed, Mark Strong, Jan Uddin, Akin Gazi.

More than 2,000 members of the Qatari community were in attendance to enjoy DTFF’s opening night gala at Katara’s open air theatre (KOAT).

Tunisian producer Tarak Ben Ammar dedicated the film’s opening to the people of Tunisia and their newfound democracy as voted in the past two days.

The sold out crowd at the KOAT erupted into applause at Ben Ammar’s remarks as he talked about the cast and crew’s experiences shooting Black Gold in Tunisia during the Arab Spring.

Ben Ammar’s Quinta Communications co-produced the international production Black Gold with the Doha Film Institute (DFI). The film is DFI’s first major international co-production and one of biggest and most ambitious projects ever to shoot in the Arab region.

Against the stunning backdrop of a specially constructed four-storey open air theatre, stars dazzled on the red carpet as they mingled with local fans and VIP industry guests from around the world.

The star guests included DFI Founder Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, vice-chair of DFI Board and chair of Festival Board, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Fahed Al-Thani; DFI executive director, Amanda Palmer, chief Arab Programmer Hania Mroue, head of International Programming, Ludmila Cvikova, resident filmmaker and programmer Chadi Zeneddine; and head of DFI Education, Scandar Copti.

Black Gold cast and guests in attendance on Tuesday night were Freida Pinto, Dev Patel,
Tarak Ben Ammar, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Tahar Rahim, Mark Strong, James Horner, Jan Uddin and Akin Gazi.

International celebrities and industry VIPS included Rob Lowe, James Cromwell, Omar Sharif, Christopher Doyle, Asif Kapadia, Robin Wright,  Nadine Labaki, Daniel Nettheim, Somi, Jasmina Zbanic, Manish Malhotra, Tribeca Enterprises Geoff Gilmore and Craig Hatkoff, and Mumbai and Dubai festival directors.

Stars from the Arab world included: Khaled Mouzannar, Sawsan Badr, Merihan, Carmen Lebbos, Yosra, Mahmoud Abdelaziz, Jamal Soliman and Khaled Yousef. GCC talent included Demet Gul, Aylin Tezel, Mohammad Malas, Fahad Al Kubaisi, Saood Al Kaabi, Habib Ghuloom Al Attar, Abdulla Alkaabi.

DTFF also provided live coverage from the red carpet for the open air audience, which captured the evening’s highlights, including celebrity interviews and arrivals.-TradeArabia News Service