The Doha Film Institute (DFI) is organising a special screening to celebrate the 25th year anniversary of one of the most popular love stories ever told, Disney’s animated musical romantic fantasy.
Beauty and the Beast, at the Museum of Islamic Art Park on January 23 at 7.30pm.
The screening is part of DFI’s ongoing Cinema Under the Stars, a series of free outdoor screenings for all family members to enjoy the magic of films taking place in Qatar throughout the cooler months, and featuring the institute’s signature mix of specialty film programming and unique cultural events.
Cinema Under the Stars has played a remarkable role in blending various communities within Qatar and participated in key national celebrations such as National Day and National Sport Day with tributes to cinematic milestones. More recently, the programme has also paid special tributes to historic blockbuster film trilogies such as Back to The Future and Rocky.
Released in 1991, Beauty and the Beast became a worldwide phenomenon that received wide critical acclaim and grossed $425mn on the global box office.
The Disney classic also became the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Disney’s first animated film to be adapted into a Broadway musical in 1994.
Beauty and the Beast won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song.
In 2002, Beauty and the Beast was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The 30th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third in the Disney Renaissance period, Beauty and the Beast was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and is based on the French fairytale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.
The film focuses on the relationship between the Beast (Robby Benson), a prince who is magically transformed into a monster by the spell of a wicked enchantress as punishment for his arrogance, and Belle (Paige O’Hara), a beautiful young woman whose father he imprisons in his castle.
To become a prince again, Beast must win her love in return otherwise he remains a monster forever. The film features the voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers and Angela Lansbury.
Trousdale is best known for directing movies such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.  After seeking to work in engineering, he switched to study animation at California Art Institute for three years.
Trousdale was hired by Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1985 and moved to DreamWorks Animation in 2003.  He gained true prominence in his field with the success of his animated film directorial debut Beauty and the Beast, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and won a LAFCA Award.
Director, animator and screenwriter, Kirk Wise is best known for his work at Disney.