Films supported by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) have started receiving international recognition with Theeb and Mustang movies sealing a nomination to the Oscars this year.
The 88th annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California in the United States tomorrow (Monday in Qatar and Sunday in the US).
“We started not very long ago but we see many of these films and Arab filmmakers make it to the international scene,” DFI chief executive officer Fatma al-Remaihi told reporters at a discussion recently.
She expressed elation on the nomination of the two Arab movies to a prestigious international film festival saying their hard work now brings tangible results.
Directed by Naji Abu Nowar, Theeb was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. It was also nominated twice at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for Best Film Not in the English Language.
Winning top awards at Palm Springs, Cannes, Chicago and Stockholm Film Festivals, director Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Mustang was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. It got nine nominations at the 2016 French Caesars.
“The growing acceptance of these films marks a new golden age of Arabic cinema and we are honoured to be driving this positive change,” al-Remaihi said.
She believes such international acclaim will inspire aspiring filmmakers in the country and those in the region to be more creative and work even harder in
producing quality films.
DFI has been nurturing and supporting Arab talents locally and beyond its borders aimed at unlocking their potentials. It also vowed to continue looking for new talents and
supporting their projects.
“There is a whole ecosystem that is presented for filmmakers in Qatar and the region that can support them in their projects from inception to finalisation and showing it later to the
audiences,” al-Remaihi said.
Another DFI-backed film, director Basil Khalil’s Ave Maria was nominated for Live Action Short Film category to the Oscars, competing
against 144 other films.
The Rotterdam International Film Festival 2016 had seen three DFI-backed films - Mountain, The Last Land, and The Garbage Helicopter – sharing the spotlight. The latter continues to be shown in more than 40 screens across Europe and Canada.
Six films, which received grants from DFI, also made it to the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival screenings.
Since 2010, DFI has supported more than 250 films and produced a global alumnus of filmmakers who earned the respect of the international film community “due to their unique voices and approach instorytelling.”
She noted that DFI is also exerting efforts to create a sustainable film industry as part of its mandate.
“There is a lot of emphasis on economic diversification not just in Qatar but also in the whole world especially in the Gulf region,” she added.
According to the DFI CEO, increasing film activities in Qatar will create more employment opportunities across all sectors,.
She expects the institute to contribute to Qatar’s aim of becoming a knowledge-based economy “which will enhance lives, inspire confidence and create
opportunities for everyone.”
“We will partner with like-minded entities in the region in our goal of celebrating our cinema and taking it to the rest of the world,” the DFI official said.