Qatar ’ s Trailblazers |
Award-winning
DFI-supported films have won over 290 awards at leading film events including :
• An Academy Award ® in 2017 for Best Foreign Language Film for The Salesman
• A BAFTA for Outstanding Debut for Theeb in 2016
• 7 awards at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016
• 3 awards in competition at Berlin in 2016
• 3 awards at the British Independent Film Awards
DFI has been a crucial source of support to AJ ever since . After that first workshop , she spent the next five years attending other courses at DFI to learn the tricks of the trade . In 2015 , DFI provided her with a grant to fund the production of Kashta .
The support from DFI has been “ incredible ”, according to AJ .
Her next project is a feature-length film called Khuzama . She received a grant from DFI in September last year to make it .
The focus of this film is on the lives of women . AJ says : “ Khuzama is a story about a Bedouin girl living in isolation in the desert . Her parents are murdered by an evil sheikh and she is forced to marry him . She escapes and finds a group of six nomadic women who have also suffered injustice from him , and they work together to take their revenge .”
Khuzama and Kashta are two of over 380 films from Qatar and the MENA region that DFI has supported since it was founded , with many more funding grants planned for the coming years .
With so many new projects in the pipeline , AJ believes that it is an exciting time for the film industry in Doha . “ There are so many stories that have yet to be told , and so many platforms to tell them on ,” she says . “ I can see a sustainable film industry about to bloom and I would like to help kick start it .”
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