Palestinian filmmaker Michel Khleifi to sit on judging panel of the Middle East International Film Festival 2008

Khleifi, who was born in Nazareth in 1950 and has been living in Belgium since 1970, started his filmmaking career in the late 1980s and quickly became one of the most renowned Palestinian filmmakers of his generation.

His first feature-length documentary film, 'Fertile Memory' was the first documentary to be directed by a Palestinian filmmaker inside Israel.

The documentary garnered Khleifi his first award for Best Feature Film at the Carthage Film Festival held in Tunis in 1980 and was featured in the International Critics' Week at the 1981 Cannes International Film Festival.

In 1986, Khleifi directed his first full-length feature film, 'Wedding in Galilee', which was also the first feature film for a Palestinian director to be filmed entirely in Palestine.

'Wedding in Galilee' remains to this day one of the most admired Arab films made in the last twenty years and succeeded in placing Khleifi on the international cultural map.

The film debuted at The Director's Fortnight at the 1987 Cannes International Film Festival and won the International Critics' Award.

'Wedding in Galilee' also received the Golden Shell Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain in 1987 and the Golden Tanit Award at the Carthage Film Festival in 1988.

His 2nd feature film, 'Canticle of the Stones', was released in 1990 and was the first documentary ever to be chosen for the Official Selection of the Cannes International Film Festival that year.

Proving to be a favorite at Cannes, his fourth full-length feature film, 'Tale of the Three Jewels' premiered at The Director's Fortnight at the 1995 Cannes International Film Festival.

Khleifi's last full-length documentary was 'Route 181- Fragments of a Journey to Palestine and Israel.'

As with all his films, 'Route 181' is a Belgian production and was co-directed with Israeli director Eyal Sivan, the documentary follows the partition of Palestine after the UN General Assembly resolution 181 was passed in November 1947.

The film premiered in 2005 at the Yamagata Film Festival in Japan.

MEIFF will also showcase 8 documentaries to highlight 60 years since the division of Palestine.

This section of historical programming will show documentaries about this catastrophic event in Arab history directed by non-Arab filmmakers aiming at highlighting the non-Arab viewpoint.

Managing this historical section will be Iraqi Director and historian Qais Al Zubeidi who will also lead a discussion session with the Directors of all the films in the section during MEIFF this year.

The Middle East International Film Festival - Abu Dhabi (MEIFF) is organized by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and is a cultural event dedicated to bringing a diverse slate of international films and programs to the community and introducing filmmakers from around the world to the resources of the region.