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8 months ago
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It is the busiest time of the year for Doha Film Institute (DFI) CEO Fatma Hassan Al Rehaimi and her team as they gear up the 10th edition of the org’s Qumra talent and project incubator.
The initiative is a cornerstone of the activities of the DFI which was launched in 2010 to help nurture a local film and TV sector as well as the wider independent filmmaking community in the Middle East and North Africa.
From March 1 to 6, some 250 professionals – including this year’s Qumra Masters Leos Carax, Toni Collette, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Martín Hernández, and Jim Sheridan – will gather in Doha to support 40 projects by emerging directors, selected from recent DFI grantees.
The DFI also runs year-round a grants programs, workshops and screenings for locally based filmmakers as well as MENA directors and a handful of emerging talents outside of the region. In a separate funding stream, it also co-finances bigger productions by established directors, with recent investments including Cannes 2023 titles Dry Grasses and Club Zero.
Qumra is one of its biggest initiative alongside annual family-focused Ajyal Film Festival in December.
“It’s been intense,” Hassan Al Rehaimi tells Deadline on the eve of Qumra. “I’ve never seen Qatar as busy as it’s been this past month.”
Alongside preparing Qumra, the DFI has also recently overseen the premiere of local feature documentary Ode To Our Land, about the legacy of late ruler Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; the launch of its Made in Qatar competition as well as the annual pop culture festival Geekdom and Intaj exhibition celebrating Arab cinema.
“So many things are happening besides Qumra, but Qumra remains a huge project for us and I’m really happy to see the office buzzing ahead of this year’s edition,” says Hassan Al Rehaimi.
At the heart of everything the DFI does is its remit to support and grow the local talent base. Among the 40 projects participating this year, 11 are directed by Qatari or Qatar-based directors, including seven by nationals.
“Everything that we do really is for our core group, which is the local industry. And we have some really great projects this year,” she says. “These curated meetings, the feedback, the connections that they make with other people in the industry, it all helps in their process of building a filmmaking career.”
Hassan Al Rehaimi cites Ode To Our Land, which was co-directed by DFI grantees and Qumra alumna Amal Al Muftah and Rawda Al-Thani, as an example of the difference the DFI’s programs and Qumra have made for local filmmakers.
“This beautiful creative documentary about the most important figure in our history was made by two female filmmakers who felt ready to make it and bear the responsibility of taking it on. The audience reaction here was unbelievable,” she says.
“Qumra for sure played a huge part in their careers, but also the wider local industry,” says Hassan Al Rehaimi, also citing A.J. Al-Thani and Majid Al-Rehaimi, whose And Then They Burn The Sea was Qatar’s first short film submission to the Academy Awards in 2022.
Looking back at 10 years of Qumra, Hassan Al Rehaimi emphasizes the long-term connections that have been forged at the event.
“Rithy Panh (who was Qumra Master in 2017), we still work with him to this day. He keeps coming back, he keeps giving,” she says. “It’s such a beautiful thing, all these moments we’ve witnessed over the past 10 years and continue to cherish.”
But her biggest source of satisfaction is seeing the impact Qumra has had on emerging filmmakers.
“In the lead-up to Qumra, we read all the dossiers and watch all the films again. I can’t help feeling proud to have this place for first and second time filmmakers. It just makes me really happy that we’re able to give them this opportunity,” she says.
