Doha/Berlin: Doha Film Institute (DFI) has chosen 34 projects from 25 countries, including 12 Qatar-based projects, for mentoring through Masterclasses and networking opportunities for the talents associated at Qumra 2017.
This was announced at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, where DFI-supported films are being screened.
Directors and producers attached to 18 narrative feature films, 7 feature documentaries and 9 short films will participate in the six-day programme of bespoke industry sessions designed to progress their projects and prepare them for international markets. The emphasis remains on supporting first-and-second-time filmmakers with projects in development and post-production.
Qumra Masters including contemporary Iranian master Asghar Farhadi; French auteur Bruno Dumont; and Cambodian creative documentarian, Argentina’s eminent filmmaker Rithy Panh Lucrecia Martel and internationally acclaimed producer Paulo Branco 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.
Among the 34 projects, 16 are from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and five from the rest of the world. Of the 34 projects, 13 are feature films in development, 12 are in post-production and nine are short films in development. Further, 23 of the projects are alumni of the Institute’s grants programme, three were supported through the Qatari Film Fund and six through other training initiatives. Of the nine short projects, six are by Qatari filmmakers, and all the projects have been selected through the Institute’s ongoing local engagement and training initiatives.
Among the Qatari projects included are feature films iPhone Memory by Mahdi Ali Ali Azooz, the Bully Slayer by Mohammed Al Hamadi and DNA of Love by Hafiz Ali Ali as well as short films Reem Planted a Flower by Rawda Al-Thani, Sh'hab by Amal Al-Muftah and Ya Hoota by Latifa Al-Darwish and Abdulaziz Yousif Ahmed.
Directors and producers attached to projects will attend the sessions in Doha where they will be linked with more than 100 seasoned industry experts. The programme is specifically tailored to each project’s needs and is divided according to their stage of development. Projects in development will participate in group and individual sessions for script consulting, legal, sales, marketing and co-production advice along with one-on-one match-made meetings and tutorials.
Projects in post-production are divided into two strands: the Work-in-Progress sessions will present a series of closed rough-cut screenings of 20-minute excerpts from the four narrative and four documentary Qumra projects in post-production followed by immediate, individual feedback from a panel of selected industry experts; and the Picture Lock Screenings will present exclusive 20 minute excerpts of four feature-length Qumra projects in the final stages of post-production for leading festival programmers, broadcasters, market representatives, sales agents and distributors.
