Doha Film Institute Chooses 44 Projects for its 2022 Spring Grants

With 44 film projects by filmmakers all over the world selected for its 2022 Spring Grants cycle, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) continues to encourage developing and independent voices in cinema. This was announced at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, where four of the Spring Grants grantees, including two in the Un Certain Regard category, are showing their projects.

The Doha Film Institute Grants program, which is awarded twice a year in the spring and fall, is the region's longest-running film assistance effort, identifying and nurturing first- and second-time filmmakers from around the world. The initiative aims to build a community of filmmakers among the Institute's graduates and stimulate creative contact among artists globally by seeking out and encouraging unique voices. The Grants program has benefited over 650 film productions from 74 countries to far.

Projects from Chile to China, Poland to Ukraine, Egypt to Greenland, and Switzerland to Sudan are among the recipients of the Spring 2022 Grants. Eleven films by Qatari filmmakers are included in the line-up. The Grant is being given to a film project from Comoros for the first time. Nine filmmakers are returning after receiving funding from the Institute or being developed at Qumra.

Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Chile, China, Comoros, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greenland, India, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, Norway, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, The Netherlands, Tunisia, UK, Ukraine, USA, and Yemen are among the countries represented in this cycle.

"We are thrilled to extend our assistance to first- and second-time filmmakers with the Spring 2022 Grants cycle, which reiterates our commitment to encouraging independent and essential voices in cinema," Fatma Hassan Al Remaihi, DFI Chief Executive Officer, said. The need to help budding filmmakers has never been more pressing in recent history, especially in light of the hardships that the global creative industry has faced in the last two years. Our Grants program is part of our long-term commitment to developing a body of excellent cinematic work by fresh talent with universal tales."

Feet (Qatar) by Mahdi Ali Ali; The Other Wife [working title] (Qatar, France) by Meriem Mesraoua; My Father's Scent (Egypt, Norway, Qatar) by Mohamed Siam; and Yunan (Palestine, Germany, Syria, France, Italy, Qatar) by Ameer Fakher Eldin are among the 2022 Spring Grants recipients in the MENA – Feature Narrative –

Cotton Queen by Suzannah Mirghani, Grey Glow by Michèle Tyan, Layla in Dreamland by Celine Cotran, the 67th Summer by Abu Bakr Shawky, and The Last Days of R.M. (Algeria, France, Qatar) by Amin Sidi-Boumédiène are all listed under MENA – Feature Narrative – Production.

NON-MENA – Feature Documentary – Post-Production: Marzia Toscano's After the Bridge, Vlad Petri's Between Revolutions, and Ainara Vera's Polaris.