Doha Film Institute (DFI) has chosen 34 projects from 25 countries, including 12 Qatar-based, for mentoring through Masterclasses and networking opportunities at Qumra 2017.
Directors and producers attached to 18 narrative feature films, seven feature documentaries and nine 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, DFI said in a statement.
Qumra Masters, including contemporary Iranian master Asghar Farhadi; French auteur Bruno Dumont; Cambodia’s creative documentarian Rithy Panh, Argentina’s eminent filmmaker 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.
The projects represent 25 countries of production, alongside 16 from the Middle East North Africa (Mena) region and six from the rest of the world.
Of the 34 projects, 13 are features 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.
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 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.
The Picture Lock Screenings will present 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.
Man Behind The Microphone by Claire Belhassine (Tunisia, the UK, Qatar).
