FROM LEFT: Qatar-based filmmakers Nouf Al Sulaiti, Amal Al Muftah, Zahed Bata and Mariam Al Dhubhani at the public screening.
Films by Qatar-based filmmakers were screened to a packed audience at the Museum of Islamic Art Auditorium on Thursday as part of the New Voices in Cinema programme at this year’s Qumra industry event by Doha Film Institute (DFI).
The short films showcased included Sh’hab by Amal Al Muftah, Just Another Memory by Mariam Al Dhubhani, Amphitheater by Mahdi Ali Ali, The Wake by Zahed Bata, and Gubgub by Nouf Al Sulaiti.
Gubgub received much acclaim during the last Ajyal Film Festival winning two awards including Best Short Film in the Mohaq category and the inaugural Abdulaziz Jassim Award for Best Performance at the Made in Qatar Awards for Fatima Al Nahdi’s role as an adventurous girl who goes crab-hunting with her family.
Sh’hab, an endearing tale of a young girl’s curiosity sparked by the myth of falling stars, and Just Another Memory, a powerful documentary on what it feels like to be displaced by war were also winners at Ajyal’s Made in Qatar bagging the Best Narrative and Best Documentary honours, respectively.
The screenings took place following the showing of 2019 Academy Award-nominated documentary Of Fathers and Sons by Talal Derki.
In its fifth edition, Qumra 2019 is one-of-a-kind film event in the region that brings together more than 150 acclaimed filmmakers, industry professionals and experts to nurture 36 films – the Qumra Projects – by first and second-time filmmakers that are in various stages of development, among which are 15 films by Qatar-based filmmakers.
The six-day event which kicked off yesterday features Qumra Masters including Academy Award-winning Mexican production designer Eugenio Caballero, French New Wave cinema legend Agnès Varda, prolific Japanese director and writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa, award-winning Italian writer and director Alice Rohrwacher and Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski. They will mentor first and second-time filmmakers during Qumra, to support the development of emerging filmmakers from Qatar, the Arab region and around the world.
Along with the Qumra Masters, the event welcomes accomplished film directors, producers, film festival directors, programmers, consultants, fund managers, sales professionals, acquisition heads, script experts, distributors, video on demand (VoD) platforms and broadcasters, and other industry professionals from more than 15 leading international film festivals, and executives from some of the world’s leading film production companies, sales and distribution companies, and cultural and funding agencies.
International delegates come from countries ranging from Chile to Italy, Canada to Japan and the UK to the USA among others. Regional delegates come from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tukey, Syria and Tunisia. The Qumra 2019 industry events include the Qumra Masterclasses, led by the Qumra Masters; workshops and meetings for first- and second-time filmmakers with international film industry experts in bespoke mentorship sessions; Qumra Screenings of feature films presented by the Qumra Masters and recipients of funding from the Institute, followed by question-and-answer sessions; and the Qumra Talks, which are panel-style discussions that cover a broad range of topics.
The general public has the opportunity to participate in the programme by purchasing a Qumra Pass that will give them access to Qumra Masterclasses, Qumra Screenings and Qumra Talks.
