DFI announces 25 winners for film project at Cannes Film Festival

Doha Film Institute (DFI)’s grant program inheritors were broadcast yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival. Twenty five projects will obtain funding for development, production or post-production. Among them are themes such as exile, the aftermath of war, coming of age and importance of family. Films supported in previous sessions of the grants programme are represented at Cannes this year with five grantees making their world premiere and submissions for the Fall 2015 grants will open on July 18 and close on August 1.

25 film projects win DFI grants

Topical themes of exile, the aftermath of war, coming of age and the importance of family feature prominently in Doha Film Institute (DFI)’s Spring 2015 session of its grants programme, whose recipients were announced yesterday at the Cannes Film Festival.
Twenty-five projects, comprising 14 narrative feature films, five feature documentaries, one feature experimental film and five short films, will receive funding for development, production or post-production.
This round’s selection also highlights the strength of submissions from first- and second-time feature filmmakers from the Mena region along with a strong group of short films receiving grants.
After expanding the grants criteria to include established filmmakers from the Mena region for the category of post-production, this cycle also sees Mai Masri (Palestine) and Merzak Allouache (Algeria) awarded funding for their new projects – Masri’s 3000 Nights (narrative feature) and Allouache’s Madame Courage (narrative feature).
Former grant-awardees Leila Hotait Salas (Crayons of Askalan) and Nejib Belkadhi (Bastardo) are also returning with new projects. These are Hotait Salas’ narrative feature Stolen Skies and Belkadhi’s narrative feature Retina.
Gulf representation in the short films includes Fahad al-Kuwari’s One of Them from Qatar and Amal al-Agroobi’s Under The Hat from the UAE.
Qatari feature film Sahaab by Khalifa Abdullah al-Muraikhi marks the first Qatari feature awarded a production grant.
In the feature documentary category, stories from or about Syria and its ongoing civil war and set against a backdrop of political, social and emotional turmoil form the subject matter of several projects selected for grants, including Boutheyna Bouslama’s Seeking The Man With the Camera (Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Qatar), Ziad Kalthoum’s Beirut Rooster (Syria, Lebanon, Qatar) and Noura Kevorkian’s Batata (Lebanon, Qatar).
In the feature narrative category, projects from Algeria, Lebanon and Palestine include Muhannad Lamin’s Tin Hinan, Lidia Terki’s Paris The White, Firas Khoury’s Alam, The Flag and Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s innovative genre film film Kteer Kbeer.
Five projects from outside the Mena region have received funding, including grants for filmmakers from Singapore (Apprentice by Junfeng Boo) and Slovenia (Houston, We Have a Problem by Ziga Virc), for the first time.
Other projects chosen from the rest of the world include films by Francisco Varone (Road To La Paz), Manu Gerosa (Between Sisters) and Aaron and Amanda Kopp (Liyana).
Fatma al-Remaihi, CEO of DFI, said: “These grants give support to projects with diverse regional perspectives and genres… we have funded more than 220 projects through the grants programme since it was established.”
Films supported in previous sessions of the grants programme are represented at Cannes this year with five grantees making their world premiere.
These are Waves ’98 by Elie Dagher (Lebanon, Qatar), Official Short Film Competition; Dégradé by Tarzan and Arab Abunasser (Palestine, France, Qatar) and Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano (Italy, France, Germany, Qatar), Critics’ Week sidebar; Lamb by Yared Zeleke (Ethiopia, France, Qatar), main world cinema showcase, Un Certain Regard; and Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar), Directors’ Fortnight.
Submissions for the Fall 2015 grants will open on July 18 and close on August 1.

Gulf Times