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• 21 projects by first and second-time filmmakers from around the world selected for grants
• Represented MENA countries include Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia
• 12 of 21 projects selected are directed by women
• Four grantee alumni to screen at the 65th Berlinale
• Submissions now open for next funding round
Doha, Qatar; February 4, 2015: The Doha Film Institute today announced recipients of the Fall 2014 session of its grants programme, ahead of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where four of the Institute's previous grantees will be presented, including three world premieres.
Twenty-one projects from 24 countries – comprising 9 narrative feature films, 8 feature documentaries, 4 short films (three narrative and one experimental) – will receive funding for development, production or post-production.
Eleven of the projects are from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, 8 are from the OECD's Development Assistance Committee list of countries (DAC), and two are from the rest of the world. For the first time, filmmakers from Italy, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal, The Philippines and USA will receive grants.
The Fall session marks the 9th session of the grants programme, which is dedicated to supporting new cinematic talent, with a focus on first and second-time filmmakers.
Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, said: “Our Fall grantees represent some powerful new voices in cinema with a majority of filmmakers chosen coming from the MENA region.”
She added: “The cultural diversity among the chosen projects is very inspiring, as is the fact that once again, we are seeing so many strong female-driven projects. It is also very encouraging to welcome some of our grantee alumni who are returning with new projects. This demonstrates the very real development in their creative journeys and just how meaningful this programme is for providing an infrastructure of support for emerging talent. Our commitment to these films extends much further than a one-time grant - we are dedicated to supporting filmmakers for the life-cycle of their project and in many cases, into their next. ”
Among the 21 projects selected for funding, three films are from Tunisia – Walid Mattar's
narrative feature ‘Northern Wind' which is a subtle exploration of friendship between two men whose lives cross paths due to a factory relocation, Claire Belhassine's feature documentary ‘The Man Behind The Microphone', about Hedi Jouini who is known as the ‘Frank Sinatra of Tunisia', and second-time grantee Kaouther Ben Hania's documentary ‘Zaineb Hates the Snow', an intimate family portrait about a young girl who is relocated to Canada following the death of her father.
Two projects from Qatar-based filmmakers were awarded grants – Nora Al Subai's ‘Opening Doors', the true story of Amna Mahmoud, a courageous Qatari teacher who opened the first school for girls in Qatar in 1957 and Karem Kamel's ‘Light Sounds', about an unlikely duo of Sri-Lankan immigrants who work as cleaners in a washroom neighbouring a mosque.
Several projects with unique perspectives on the conflicts in the MENA region are among the grantees: ‘Dégradé' is the debut feature from twin brothers Arab & Tarzan Abunasser about twelve women stuck in a Gaza hair salon for an entire afternoon, as they witness a violent confrontation taking place across the street; ‘In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain' by Larissa Sansour is an experimental short about Palestine which examines the role of myth in history and national identity; and ‘To All Naked Men' by Bassam Chekhes is a narrative drama set in the aftermath of the Syrian war.
Twelve of the 21 funded projects are directed by women, including Deniz Erguven's ‘Mustang', a Turkish project about five vibrant girls who grow out of childhood in a family obsessed with their virtue, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh's ‘They', about the transition from childhood to adulthood and the open-ended questions of identity faced by the young protagonist, Nour Wazzi's family drama ‘The Trophy' and ‘Scales' by Saudi Arabian director, Shahad Ameen, which blends fantasy and reality in a tale of a 13 year-old girl fighting against her imminent fate of becoming a mermaid.
Female-driven projects are also strongly represented in the documentary category where 7 of the 9 grantees are women. They include Marie-Clemence Andriamonta Paes's ‘Madagascar 1947, The Sound Of Silence', about the largely unknown post-WWII rebellion by Malagasy war veterans which was harshly suppressed by the French colonial authorities, Jewel Maranan's ‘Tondo, Beloved' about the effects of poverty as people are caught up in the path of Manila's port expansion, and Maryam Ebrahimi's ‘The Confiscated Images', about Iranian Gulf war photographer, Saeed Sadeghi, whose images were used to propel the myth of the Holy War.
Tamara Stepanyan has received a grant for the third time, making her the first third-time grantee of the programme. Her feature documentary, ‘Limbo', explores the experience of Armenian asylum seekers.
Four of the Institute's grantee alumni are screening at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival which opens on Thursday. Two documentaries will make their world premiere in The Forum section - David Yon's ‘The Night and The Kid' (Fall 2012 grantee) and Michel Zongo's ‘The Siren of Faso Fani' (Fall 2013 grantee). Also in Forum is Ghassan Salhab's ‘The Valley' (Fall 2012 grantee) which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, while ‘Out on the Streets' (Spring 2013 grantee) by Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk will have its world premiere in Forum Expanded.
Submissions for the current grants session are now open and will close on February 15. The fund is available to projects by filmmakers from around the world with an emphasis on supporting filmmakers from the MENA region with certain categories of funding reserved for MENA and Qatari filmmakers.
The fund is primarily for first and second-time filmmakers with the exception of the category of Post-Production which, as of the 11th session, will be newly open to established filmmakers from the MENA region.
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