On the seven hour flight from Dubai to London, I caught a couple of decent films – the Steve Jobs movie and Elysium. But otherwise, among the hundred-odd other films on offer there wasn’t anything else of particular interest. There’s certainly been a dry spell at the cinemas that has worked its way on to the airline film offerings. But it did strike me that having watched four very good films at the Dubai film festival, each very different, that there was a contrast to the more commercial offerings on the plane. That’s why I think film festivals are so precious – the Cine Libre festival organised by the Goethe Institut in Abidjan was one of my favourite cultural events of the year. The people in charge of curating the programme really do a good job of selecting good films – I’m sorry I didn’t attend a single film screening at the Dubai film festival last year.