Doha: The Qumra 2023, which will be held in person March 10-15 and online March 19-21, has announced the 44 projects that will be showcased.
There are 14 feature narrative films, 12 feature documentaries, seven series, and 11 short films among the 23 selected projects.
29 of the 44 projects have received funding through the Doha Film Institute’s Grants program, while five have received funding from the Qatari Film Fund. DFI Training Programs have seen participation from 24 projects (Hezayah Scriptwriting lab, Producers Lab, Shorts Script Lab, Doc Lab with Rithy Panh, Series Lab and First Cut Lab). In total, eight feature projects, five productions, thirteen post-productions, seven Qumra Series, and eleven Qumra Shorts are in development.
The projects being nurtured at Qumra 2023 have been chosen from a diverse pool of films from around the world supported by the Institute, according to DFI CEO Fatma Hassan Al Remaihi. She emphasized that DFI is enthusiastic about the diversity and depth of the original themes that up-and-coming filmmakers are examining and that Qumra is creating a new platform for independent and fresh voices in cinema.
She praised the support of the renowned film greats and industry leaders who provide mentoring and guidance for the chosen projects, noting that DFI’s mission is to support independent voices in cinema in their script-to-screen journey. The abilities that filmmakers develop at Qumra will be crucial to their careers because they will allow them to not only reach a global audience for their work but also to gain extraordinary insights into the art of filmmaking.
Projects in development take part in group and one-on-one sessions with Qumra Masters and industry mentors for script consulting, legal, sales, marketing, and co-production advice, as well as individual matchmaking sessions for projects in post-production. Leading festival programmers, broadcasters, market representatives, sales agents, and distributors are invited to a series of closed rough-cut screenings of these projects.
