DFI sets a Mena first with 'Official Selection' at 76th Cannes

The Doha Film Institute (DFI) has set a first in the Arab region for a film organisation, with its latest co-financed projects, “About Dry Grasses” by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero” selected to the Official Selection, In Competition at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, which takes place from May 16 to 27.
Additionally, “Banel E Adama”, the debut feature by Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye SY, recipient of the Spring 2023 grants, has been selected to In Competition, marking the first ever DFI grantee project selected to the prestigious section, a statement said yesterday.
This nomination makes DFI the only cultural organisation in the Mena region to have eight supported projects including seven co-financed titles selected for the Official Selection, In Competition to date. Previous nominees include Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” in 2016, Nadine Labaki’s “Caphernaum” and “The Wild Pear Tree” by Nuri Bilge Ceylan in 2018, “It Must Be Heaven” by Elia Suleiman in 2019 and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria” in 2021.
Diverse projects supported by DFI through its Grants programme will screen to global audiences in key sections of the prestigious Festival including three in Official Selection, Un Certain Regard; one in Official Selection, Midnight Screening; four projects in the parallel section of Critics’ Week (Semaine de la Critique), one in Director’s Fortnight (Quinzaine des cineastes), and one in ACID.
Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, CEO of DFI, said: “The diversity of DFI-supported films at Cannes this year is a strong testament to the high quality of projects nurtured through the Institute’s funding and mentoring initiatives.
Co-financed by DFI, “About Dry Grasses” by acclaimed Turkish director, screenwriter and photographer Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Austrian director and screenwriter Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero” will premiere in competition along with grantee “Banel E Adama” by Ramata-Toulaye SY competing with 18 other global entries. Nuri’s film ‘Winter Sleep’ won the Palme d'Or at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, and he has also been awarded the Best Director Award in 2008 for ‘Three Monkeys’ and the Grand Jury Prize (Grand Prix) in 2002 for ‘Once Upon a Time in Anatolia’. Jessica Hausner returns to Cannes after having three previous films, “Lovely Rita”, “Hotel” and “Amour Fou” selected to the Un Certain Regard section of the festival and ‘Little Joe’ selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 edition of the Festival.