News

The Doha Film Institute’s Qumra workshop wrapped on Wednesday after six days of masterclasses, labs and mentoring sessions held in the Qatari capital aiming to connect the Arab filmmaking community with the rest of the world. The event’s 11th edition unfolded against the backdrop of a broken Middle East ceasefire and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trumpeted tariffs, but these happenings did not disrupt the event’s positive tone.

Qumra, named after the Arab word believed to be the origin of “camera,” saw some 300 top industry reps — including sales agents, producers and top festival programmers — congregate in Doha, which played a key role in mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel. The event unveiled a new crop of first and second works mostly by Arab directors comprising 49 projects, 27 of which are feature films, either in development or post-production.

Many projects are supported by the Doha Film Institute, which...

Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute (Dfi), spoke out against the attack by Israeli settlers on and arrest by Israeli police of Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

“The recent attack on Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal proves that even winning the most prestigious award, an Oscar, does not offer any safety from violent oppression by the occupation,” said Al Remaihi, speaking at the opening of the 2025 edition of the Dfi’s Qumra lab. Ballal was released the day after his arrest.

Remarking that this year marks the 15th anniversaryof Dfi, Al Remaihi said, “We...

The Doha Film Institute’s Qumra workshop kicks off Friday with the cream of the Arab cinema crop on display – including several timely Palestinian projects – and a host of top industry professionals expected to make the trek to the Qatari capital.

Standout titles set to be unveiled in Doha – which played a key role in mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel – comprise sci-fi thriller “In Memory of Times to Come” (see concept still above), a first feature from Danish-Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, who represented Denmark at the 58th Venice Visual Arts Biennale. The film is set 30 years from now when, following an “eco apocalypse,” a woman and her husband lead a peaceful life in a restored Bethlehem townhouse, according to the synopsis.

“In Memory,” which will start shooting this fall is produced by Anna Köhncke (“The Act of Killing”) and multiple Oscar-nominated Monica Hellström. The film delves into the complexities of memory,...

Palestinian sci-fi In Memory Of Times To Come is among the 49 projects selected for the 49th edition of Qumra, the Doha Film Institute (Dfi)’s talent incubator (April 4-9).

The feature directorial debut of UK-based Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, In Memory… is currently filming, and is selected in Qumra’s In Production – Feature Narrative strand. The film depicts a utopian social experiment that has erased historical trauma from memory, in which an unknown entity pushes one woman to remember.

Scroll down for the full Qumra 2025 selection

The film is a Palestine-Denmark-Malta-uk-Belgium-Qatar co-production, with Anne Kohncke and Monica Hellstrom of Denmark’s Strom Pictures leading production.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has unveiled the 49 projects across all formats that will be showcased at the 11th edition of its Qumra development and networking event in April.

They include Quarter to Thursday from Algerian director Sofia Djama, about three friends on a mission to bury a dachshund in a military base, which is in development. Djama’s last feature The Blessed won a slew of awards in Venice Horizons in 2017, and delivered a breakout best actress role for rising French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri.

The selection also features Syrian director Anas Khalaf’s Love 45 about an overweight Lebanese man who is caught in a destructive spiral, which is in production. Khalaf’s previous credits include the Syria, Bashar al-Assad-era set thriller The Translator.

The picture lock line-up includes Tunisian director Erige Sehiri’s Marie & Jolie about three Ivorian women from different generations making a life in in the...

Sofia Alaoui’sTarfayaand post-apocalyptic UK co-productionIn Memory Of Times To Come are among the 47 projects to receive support fromQatar’s Doha Film Institute (Dfi) in its 2024 autumn funding round.

Thirty of the projects are feature fiction and documentary films, with 13 shorts, three TV series and one web series.

Scroll down for the full list of selected features

Tarfaya is the second feature from French-Moroccan filmmaker Alaoui, after her Sundance special jury prize winner Animalia. It sees a mysterious sleeping epidemic in a remote Moroccan town test a dedicated doctor’s resolve.

The project was developed through the Red Sea Film...

Qatar’s Doha Film Institute has revealed the 47 projects across all formats selected for its fall 2024 grants round.

Palestinian director Razan Madhoon’s Gaza-set drama The Good Spirit, Moroccan-French filmmaker Sofia Alaoui’s thriller Tarfaya and The Joyful 1926 by Algerian team Damien Ounouri and Adila Bendimerad are among the feature projects to have made the cut.

Expanding on her short film of the same name, The Good Spirit revolves around a young woman in Gaza who takes in a wounded stray dog against the wishes of her family. It will be the debut feature for Madhoon, who has lived in the UK since 2105. The project is in development.

Alaoui’s second feature after her Sundance breakout Animalia, thriller Tarfaya is set in a remote coastal town in a near-future buffeted by extreme weather and a mysterious sleeping sickness.

The Joyful 1926 about a Muslim actress who defies societal norms to pursue...

April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.

One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...

Cph: Dox, Copenhagen’s International Documentary Festival, has set the full lineup for its 2024 edition, including 84 world premieres, 32 international premieres, and 9 European premieres.

Running March 13-24, the festival will feature six competition categories: Dox: Award, F: Act Award, Nordic: Dox Award, Next: Wave Award, New: Vision Award, and the new Human: Rights Award.

Musician Pete Doherty will attend the festival for a screening of Peter Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin. The event will take place on March 18 at Bremen Theater, when he and the film’s director Katia de Vidas – who became Doherty’s wife over the ten years she followed him with her camera – openly discuss the substance abuse that has shadowed his entire career. After the screening, Doherty will give an acoustic concert. Other high-profile titles include Lana Wilson’s Look Into My Eyes, Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s Gaucho Gaucho, Carla Gutierrez’s Frida, Yance Ford’s Power,...

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the full programme for its 2024 edition, including seven films about the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

The titles include the world premiere of Tal Barda’s I Shall Not Hate in the new Human Rights Competition, in which Nobel Prize-nominated Palestinian author and doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish continues to work for peace despite the loss of his three daughters in an Israeli attack on Gaza.

Also spotlighting the conflict are world premieres of Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind’s UK-Palestine co-production Familiar Phantoms and Jonathan Schaller and Philipp Schaeffer’s Silent Night, both in the New:Vision strand.

Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:Dox) has unveiled the line-ups for its five competitive sections for its 2024 edition. All films in the main Dox:Award competition are world premieres for the second successive year.

Scroll down for the full list of competition titles

Titles in that section include Alessandra Celesia’s The Flats, a France-uk-Ireland-Belgium co-production about Belfast youngsters accessing their memories of the Troubles. Belfast-based Italian filmmaker Celesia has previously made documentaries including 2017’s Anatomy Of A Miracle, which played at Locarno.

The 12-strong Dox:Award competition also includes Manon Ouimet and Jacob Perlmutter’s UK title Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other,...

More than 2,000 figures from the UK’s arts and culture world have signed an open letter calling for the immediate cessation of Israel’s blockade and bombing of Gaza.

“We are witnessing a crime and a catastrophe. Israel has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, and cut off the supply of water, power, food and medicine to 2.3 million Palestinians,” reads the letter. “In the words of the Un’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, ‘the spectre of death’ is hanging over the territory.”

The signatories include acting stars Tilda Swinton, Charles Dance, Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake and Khalid Abdalla.

The Israeli action is in retaliation for a brutal terror attack out of Gaza by Hamas on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people and resulted in the taking of 199 hostages.

More than 2,750 Palestinians are reported to have died in Israel’s subsequent bombing campaign, while electricity, food and...

Some 18 producers from 17 countries will attend workshops throughout 2023 and 2024.

Eve Gabereau of the UK’s Modern Films and Denmark’s Monica Hellstrom are among 18 independent producers selected for Ace 33, the latest intake for the Ace Producers Network.

The 18 producers from 17 different countries will attend three workshops throughout 2023 and 2024 with independent feature projects. The workshops will take place in Norway in October, on content development; in Warsaw, Poland in November, on financing strategies; and finally in France, looking at business strategies.

Scroll down for the Ace 33 selection

The producers will then join the Ace Network following the 2024 Ace meeting in Bordeaux,...

18 producers from 17 countries will attend workshops throughout 2023 and 2024.

Eve Gabereau of UK company Modern Films and Danish producer Monica Hellstrom are among 18 independent producers selected for Ace 33, the latest intake for the Ace Producers Network.

The 18 producers from 17 different countries will attend three workshops throughout 2023 and 2024 with independent feature projects. The workshops will take place in Norway in October, on content development; in Warsaw, Poland in November, on financing strategies; and finally in France, looking at business strategies.

Scroll down for the Ace 33 selection

The producers will then join the Ace Network following the 2024 Ace meeting in Bordeaux, France.

London-based...

Another Screen, the streaming arm of feminist film journal Another Gaze, launched today “For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women.” The films all stream for free worldwide, and donations are encouraged that will go towards “facilitating medical, legal, and infrastructure aid on the ground. Secondary donations go to as supporting filmmaking in Gaza; restoration projects of older Palestinian films; cultural centers for refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and more.” Already on the site are films by Jumana Manna, Basma Alsharif, Rosalind Nashashibi, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, and Larissa Sansour, and to be posted in the next few days […]

The post Another Screen Launches Streaming Series “For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Another Screen, the streaming arm of feminist film journal Another Gaze, launched today “For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women.” The films all stream for free worldwide, and donations are encouraged that will go towards “facilitating medical, legal, and infrastructure aid on the ground. Secondary donations go to as supporting filmmaking in Gaza; restoration projects of older Palestinian films; cultural centers for refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and more.” Already on the site are films by Jumana Manna, Basma Alsharif, Rosalind Nashashibi, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, and Larissa Sansour, and to be posted in the next few days […]

The post Another Screen Launches Streaming Series “For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Less Is More, the program launched by Le Group Ouest to help young helmers such as Maimouna Doucouré (“Cuties”), has unveiled the trailer of Daria Woszek’s “Marygoround” which will have its world premiere at South By Southwest.

The film, which was developed within the framework of Less Is More, revolves around Mary, a lonely grocery store worker who lives a rather dull life in a small town. On the eve of her 50th birthday, Mary’s life soon begins to take on a totally unexpected turn when she overdoses on the hormone patches prescribed by her doctor and receives the visit of a free-spirited niece. Mary’s senses and imagination suddenly come alive.

“The film is a quirky, darkly comic tale starring a stunning screen newcomer Grażyna Misiorowska, (and it tells the) story of a woman reclaiming her own body,” said South By Southwest in its presentation of “Marygoround...

Previous projects include Nathalie Biancheri’s ‘Wolf’ starring George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp.

European training and coaching development programme Less Is More has selected 16 low-budget feature projects for its 2020 scheme, as well as 12 ‘development angels’ to join the development process.

Open to projects at script development stage from first to third-time feature filmmakers from across the globe, the scheme received 460 applications from 90 countries – a 37% increase on the previous year’s total.

See full list of projects below.

12 of this year’s projects are European productions, with one each from Tunisia, Rwanda and Mexico plus a Palestine-Denmark co-production.

Less Is More...

Mati Diop, Talal Selhami and Larissa Sansour discuss their different routes to genre at Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops.

International festival programmers are sitting up and paying attention to the rise in genre cinema by Arab and African filmmakers.

Mati Diop’s genre-bending drama Atlantics wowed Cannes Competition earlier this year, with Algerian psychological drama Abou Leila screening in Cannes Critics Week and Tunisian horror film Dachra for Venice Critics’ Week in 2018.

A group of filmmakers gathered to discuss their routes into genre filmmaking at a panel talk ‘Unearthing the Fantastic’ held during the Atlas Workshops of the Marrkech International Film Festival last week.

2019 has been an excellent year for films from Africa and the Middle East, with a higher presence in A-list festivals, and kudos for films such as Mati Diop’s “Atlantics,” which won the Grand Prix at Cannes.

The “new wave” of Arab and African cinema includes a small group of films that explore links with genre cinema – including fantasy, sci-fi and horror – which is related to a broader trend in literature and the contemporary arts in the Arab world that is exploring dystopias and fantasy settings.

Lamia Chraibi, a leading producer of daring films from the Middle East and North Africa region, is developing a pan-Arab genre series, “Meskoun,” with Moroccan filmmaker Hicham Lasri (“Jahilya”) as showrunner, in coproduction with Mohamed Hefzy’s Film Clinic (Egypt), Georges Schoucair’s Abbout Productions (Lebanon) and Habib Attia’s Cinetelefilms (Tunisia).

Chraibi recently produced Talal Selhami’s “Achoura,” Morocco’s first fantasy film,...

Second edition of project platform will showcase 28 feature projects.

Upcoming feature films by Egyptian director Tamer el Said and Moroccan Bafta nominee Ismaël Ferroukhi are among the 28 projects to be showcased at the second edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops, running December 3 to 6.

“We got off to a good start in the first edition,” says Remi Bonhomme, who has spearheaded the meeting.

He notes the winner of the last year’s main post-production prize– Hassen Ferhani’s documentary 143 Sahara Street – went on to enjoy a successful festival career, clinching the best emerging director prize in...

Born in East Jerusalem, Larissa Sansour is a renowned artist who lives and works in London and New York. Her dystopian tale “In Vitro”, that is running in the section “States of being: Experimental Reflections on Place and Memory” of Lpff, was commissioned by the Danish Arts Foundation for the 58th Venice Biennale, and is co-directed and written with Danish writer Søren Lind.

“In Vitro” is screening at the London Palestine Film Festival 2019

In the aftermath of a massive eco-disaster, two scientists meet under the city of Bethlehem in an underground nuclear reactor turned bunker, turned orchard, where a new beginning for the human species is planned. In the orchard, sprouts from collected heirloom seeds are nursed to be planted and replenish the fields, bees will be bred for pollination and new genetically engineered humans will revive the planet.

The two scientists are two women of different age and their...

Born in East Jerusalem, Larissa Sansour is a renowned artist who lives and works in London and New York. Her dystopian tale “In Vitro”, that is running in the Short Movie Competition of the BFI London Film Festival, was commissioned by the Danish Arts Foundation for the 58th Venice Biennale, and is co-directed and written with Danish writer Søren Lind.

“In Vitro” is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2019

In the aftermath of a massive eco-disaster, two scientists meet under the city of Bethlehem in the underground nuclear reactor turned bunker, turned orchard, where a new beginning for the human species is planned. In the orchard, sprouts from collected heirloom seeds are nursed to be planted and replenish the fields, bees will be bred for pollination and new genetically engineered humans will revive the planet.

The two scientists are two women of different age and their discussion is a...

The short film program was exceptional and the sequencing of the shorts was also very well planned, each somehow leading into the next, whether by filmic style or elements or by theme. There were four programs, each with six shorts. The subjects were far-ranging, and considering Egypt is a Muslim country and religion often plays a strong role in the lives of many, the program was very liberal. I strongly advocate for the inclusion of these well-curated shorts in many short film festivals or in festivals with concurrent themes.

** On the subject of woman and her place in Muslim society, the 15-minute short, Give Up The Ghost by Zain Duraie, is quite daring as the protagonist resists a tradition which automatically puts her into an inferior position. Give Up the Ghost won the El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Short Film. In modern Jordan, Salam and her husband must...

The 63rd BFI London Film Festival that will run from 2 to 13 October 2019, once again in partnership with American Express®, has announced the contenders for the Official Competitions and the long list of films in the other “Strands”.

The 2019 nominated films showcase an incredible range of film-making talent from across the world; 60% of the films are from a female director or co-director with 16 countries represented across the producers and co-producers.

Lff is a compelling combination of diverse films, red carpet glamour, friendly audiences and vibrant exchange. Lff provides an essential profiling opportunity for films seeking global success; promotes the careers of international filmmakers through its industry and awards programmes and positions London as the world’s leading creative city.

And here is the full list of Asian entries in this rich edition of BFI London Film Festival:

Official Competition – The Best Film Award recognises inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking.

The Perfect...

Qatar gives grants to TV and two web series for the first time.

The Doha Film Institute (Dfi) has announced the latest round of 38 projects to be supported under its autumn 2018 grants cycle.

Among the grantees is Lebanese filmmaker Mounia Akl who won Dfi funding for her upcoming film Costa Brava Lebanon about a family whose idyllic mountain retreat home is blighted when the government decides to build a landfill by their home. It was one of seven projects hailing from Lebanon.

Other grantees included Palestinian director Laila Abbas’s comedy-drama Barzakh about two sisters who hide their father’s...

Their filmmaking community has the first-ever official pavilion at the event, sponsored by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.

New films from award-winning documentarian Mohamed Jabaly, artist and filmmaker Larissa Sansour and the latest production from Degradé producer Rashid Abdelhamid are among 14 Palestinian projects to be pitched at a Producers’ Network happy hour event on May 15 in Cannes.

Palestine’s stateless filmmaking community is out in force at Cannes with its first-ever official pavilion at the event, supported by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture in partnership with the French Consulate in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Cultural Fund.

“We’ve had a...

The Berlinale presents the complete lineup of this year's Forum Expanded program: "The reference points here include genres such as science fiction (Larissa Sansour, Søren Lind, Clemens von Wedemeyer), war (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson) or horror films (Anja Kirschner), Egyptian film and media history (Heba Amin, Islam Kamal, Mayye Zayed) as well as the work of directors such as Yvonne Rainer (Kerstin Schroedinger), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Anja Kirschner), Michelangelo Antonioni (Volker Sattel), Alain Resnais, Chris Marker (Joe Namy, Clemens von Wedemeyer), Ingmar Bergman (Maged Nader) or Jack Smith (Marie Losier). Museum and exhibition culture (Assad Gruber, Hila Peleg), the history of sculptures and monuments (Heinz Emigholz, Ahmad Ghossein, Joe Namy) or art concepts such as Lettrism (Mika Taanila) equally flow into new forms of expression within which the artists then position themselves." » - David Hudson...

The Berlinale presents the complete lineup of this year's Forum Expanded program: "The reference points here include genres such as science fiction (Larissa Sansour, Søren Lind, Clemens von Wedemeyer), war (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson) or horror films (Anja Kirschner), Egyptian film and media history (Heba Amin, Islam Kamal, Mayye Zayed) as well as the work of directors such as Yvonne Rainer (Kerstin Schroedinger), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Anja Kirschner), Michelangelo Antonioni (Volker Sattel), Alain Resnais, Chris Marker (Joe Namy, Clemens von Wedemeyer), Ingmar Bergman (Maged Nader) or Jack Smith (Marie Losier). Museum and exhibition culture (Assad Gruber, Hila Peleg), the history of sculptures and monuments (Heinz Emigholz, Ahmad Ghossein, Joe Namy) or art concepts such as Lettrism (Mika Taanila) equally flow into new forms of expression within which the artists then position themselves." » - David Hudson...

Flamin Productions backs new works from Uriel Orlow, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler and Charlotte Ginsborg.

Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (Flamin) has announced the latest round of Flamin Productions Development Awards for London-based artist filmmakers.

Uriel Orlow, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler and Charlotte Ginsborg will receive funding and bespoke mentoring to develop three new projects:

The King Against Mafavuke Ngcobo

Director Uriel Orlow recently received the Art Prize from the City of Zurich. Set against African landscapes, The King Against Mafavuke Ngcobo will explore medicinal plants as dynamic agents linking nature and humans and raise questions around issues such as the commercialisation of indigenous knowledge.

The Susurluk Scar

Winners of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Arts 2015, directors Karen Mirza and Brad Butler will explore Turkey’s Susurluk Scandal, which provoked speculation on the close relationship between the Turkish government, the armed forces and organised crime.

Damselfish

Tom Pietas holds the world record for holding...

New works from Beatrice Gibson, Sarah Turner and Larissa Sansour greenlit.

Three artist filmmakers have received commissions worth a combined $150,000 (£100,000) from Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (Flamin).

Beatrice Gibson, Larissa Sansour and Sarah Turner have received commissions through Flamin Productions, a fund aimed at nurturing talent and supporting artists with a combination of financial backing, bespoke training and professional mentoring. It is supported by Arts Council England.

Past recipients include Ben Rivers’ award-winning feature length Two Years at Sea, Elizabeth Price’s West Hinder, which formed part of her 2012 Turner prize-winning exhibition, and Sebastian Buerkner’s The Chimera of M, which won the Tiger Award for best short at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

Chosen from an pool of 100 applicants, Flamin Productions’ three new commissions include Larissa Sansour, whose recent work has featured in solo shows internationally, has been greenlit for her sci-fi video essay In The Future, They Ate From the Finest Porcelain.

Sarah Turner, whose...

Filmmakers from 24 countries, including the Us and Italy, to receive funding

The Doha Film Institute has announced recipients of the autumn 2014 session of its grants programme. The announcement has come just ahead of the Berlinale (Feb 5-15) where four of the Institute’s previous grantees will be presented, including three world premieres.

Some 21 projects from 24 countries – comprising nine narrative feature films, eight feature documentaries and four short films – will receive funding for development, production or post-production.

It marks the ninth session of the grants programme, which supports new cinematic talent, with a focus on first and second-time filmmakers.

A total of 11 of the projects are from the Middle East North Africa (Mena) region; eight are from the Oecd’s Development Assistance Committee list of countries (Dac); and two are from the rest of the world.

For the first time, filmmakers from Italy, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal, The Philippines and Us will receive grants.

Among the 21 projects...