MUMBAI: George Clooney offered insights into his life and work in a special public session entitled – In Conversation with George Clooney at The Dubai International Film Festival.

DIFF programmer and film critic Sheila Whitaker spoke with Clooney before a live audience, after which the floor was opened for questions from the public.
 
Clooneywas born into a show business family – his father Nick was a television news journalist and anchor for many years in Chicago. He is the nephew of 1950’s actress and singer Rosemary Clooney and cousin of actor Miguel Ferrer (The Manchurian Candidate, Traffic).
 
Clooney first gained recognition for his role in the television hospital drama ER, then moved on to roles in major Hollywood successes such as Three Kings (1999), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). and his most commercially successful film, Ocean’s Eleven (2001), directed by his frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh.
 
Clooney has been to Dubai before. In 2005, he starred in Syriana, which was filmed in the Emirate, and the same year he directed, produced and starred in his Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck.   He was the first person in Oscar history to be nominated for directing one movie and acting in another in the same year, winning the award for Syriana.
 
Off-screen, Clooney is active in highlighting the issue of genocide in Darfur. He is actively involved with Not On Our Watch, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop mass atrocities, along with Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Don Cheadle. He is also actively involved in environmental issues.