DOHA: Doha Film Institute (DFI) yesterday announced at the Cannes Film Festival that 25 projects will receive its Spring 2015 grants.
The projects, including 14 narrative feature films, five feature documentaries, one feature experimental film and five short films, will receive funding for development, production or post-production.
Topical themes of exile, the aftermath of war, coming of age and the importance of family feature prominently in DFI’s Spring 2015 session of its grants programme.
After expanding grants criteria to include established filmmakers from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region in 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, a narrative feature about a newlywed Palestinian schoolteacher who gives birth to a boy in an Israeli prison and Allouache’s Madame Courage, a narrative feature about an unstable and lonely teenager living in a slum in the suburbs of Mostaganem, Algeria.
Former grant recipients Leila Hotait Salas (Crayons of Askalan) and Nejib Belkadhi (Bastardo) are also returning with new projects.
Salas’ narrative feature Stolen Skies, set against demonstrations in Cairo in 2011, is about a woman who remembers her Lebanese lover 30 years ago and Belkadhi’s narrative feature Retina is about a Tunisian immigrant forced to return to home to take care of his autistic son.
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 film awarded for a production grant. The project recently participated in Qumra, the first edition of DFI’s new industry platform to develop of first- and second-time filmmakers.
In the feature documentary category, stories from or about Syria and its ongoing civil war and set against the backdrop of political, social and emotional turmoil form the subject matter of projects selected for grants.
They include 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, regional projects from Algeria, Lebanon and Palestine span a variety of genres and cover subject matters, including modern-day life in the Middle East, lost love and immigration.
Five projects from outside Mena 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. The new-wave of filmmaking coming out of Argentina, a story of familial secrets between sisters and a moving documentary about orphan children in Swaziland form an eclectic selection of projects chosen from the rest of the world — filmmakers Francisco Varone (Road To La Paz), Manu Gerosa (Between Sisters) and Aaron and Amanda Kopp (Liyana).
Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO, DFI, said, “Our Spring grants recipients demonstrate the strength of new work coming from emerging filmmakers, with 23 projects awarded to first- and second-time directors and a strong selection of short films by new talents to watch. We have funded more than 220 projects through the grants programme since it was established and I am pleased to welcome back some of our grantee alumni returning this session with new films. I am also pleased to introduce in this funding round a new avenue of support for established Mena directors, which reflects an integral part of our mission to support voices from the Arab world.”
Films supported in previous sessions of the programme are strongly represented in the Festival de Cannes this year, with five recipients making their world premiere in various sections.
Waves ’98 by Elie Dagher (Lebanon, Qatar) in the Official Short Film Competition; Dégradé by Tarzan and Arab Abunasser (Palestine, France, Qatar) and Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano (Italy, France, Germany, Qatar) in the Critics’ Week sidebar dedicated to showcasing innovative works by new filmmakers; Lamb by Yared Zeleke (Ethiopia, France, Qatar) in the main world cinema showcase, and Un Certain Regard; and Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar) selected for the Directors’ Fortnight.
Submissions for the Fall 2015 grants session open on July 18 and close on August 1.
ThePeninsula
