The festival aims to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment, and as industry.
The much-awaited Venice International Film Festival will feature 13 films supported by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) this year as local talents continue to flaunt their talents globally.
Aiming to increase awareness and promote international film in all of its forms as art, entertainment, and industry, the global festival is among the most prominent events and includes a number of sidebar and supplemental activities.
This year, the event is organised by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera, and will take place on August 31 until September 10 in the stunning Venice Lido.
The selection includes films from Algeria, Egypt, France, Jordan, Indonesia, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia, underscoring the breadth of the DFI’s support for independent voices in cinema.
“We are incredibly proud to showcase 13 diverse films backed by the DFI at the Venice Film Festival this year, underlining our commitment to support emerging Arab talent and filmmakers from across the globe,” said DFI chief executive Fatma Hassan Alremaihi.
The Makbul Mubarak-directed film Autobiography, produced at Qumra and shot in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Poland, Germany, France, and Qatar, has been chosen for the Orizzonti, which is devoted to films that showcase the newest expressive and aesthetic trends.
It narrates a story of a teenage boy who is left alone after his father gets imprisoned.
Nezouh (Syria, Lebanon, Qatar), another Qumra production, has been selected for the Orizzonti Extra selection, which showcases up to 10 international works that exhibit original innovation.
Directed by Soudade Kaadan, the short film follow Zeina, the main character, whose home’s ceiling was obliterated by a missile. She sees the outside world for the first time after previously being barred from even opening a window, and she makes friends with the kid who lives next door.
An official selection to the 19th edition of Giornate degli Autori, an independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival modeled after the famed “Directors’ Fortnight” of the Cannes Festival, is The Last Queen (Algeria, France, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Qatar), which was also developed at Qumra. The historical drama, Damien Ounouri directed, takes place in 1516.
The DFI’s 2019 Spring Grants recipient, Dirty Difficult Dangerous (France, Lebanon, Germany, Qatar), also screens in the Venice Giornate degli Autori’s Official Selection.
The movie, which was directed by Wissam Charaf, is about Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who wanders the streets of Beirut with hundreds of shrapnel wounds in his body.
Queens (Morocco, France, Belgium, Qatar), directed by Yasmine Benkiran, will be shown during “Critics Week,” a separate segment of the Venice International Film Festival organised by the Union of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI).
In the 10th edition of the “Final Cut” workshop in Venice, which aims to give strong assistance in the finishing of films from all of Africa, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, six films financed by the DFI are featured.
The films include InshAllah A Boy (Jordan, Egypt, France, Qatar) by Amjad al-Rasheed, Blacklight (Algeria, France, Qatar) by Karim Bensalah, Backstage (Morocco, Tunisia, France, Belgium, Norway, Qatar) by Afef Ben Mahmoud and Khalil Benkirane, Suspended (Lebanon, Qatar) by Myriam, and Land of Women (Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar) by Nada Riyadh.
Lastly, A Fidai Film (Palestine, Germany, Qatar), by Kamal Aljafari, rounds out the lineup in this category. It is set in the summer of 1982 and depicts the Israeli army raiding the Palestinian Research Centre, pulling it down, and taking away its library, which included 25,000 volumes about Palestine.