BY SACHIN KUMAR
DOHA: This year’s Oscars have a Qatar connection. Four films, which received Doha Film Institute’s (DFI) financial support, are in race for the top honours in cinema. The official submissions of Lebanon, Mauritania, Panama and Palestine for the 87th Academy Awards were financially supported by the
DFI in 2013.
‘Ghadi’ directed by Amin Dora, is the official Lebanese entry, ‘Invasion’ by Abner Benaim is from Panama, ‘Timbuktu’ directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, is Mauritanian and ‘Eyes of a Thief’ directed by Najwa Najjar, is the official Palestinian entry in the foreign-language film category.
“These four films were supported through the Doha Film Institute grants programme,” Khalil Benkirane, Head of Grants, DFI, told The Peninsula.
These films will face fierce competition for the Oscars, considered the ultimate recognition in the world of cinema. This year, 83 countries have submitted entries in the foreign-language film category. Of these, five nominees for the Oscars will be announced on January 15, 2015. The winner will be announced in the awards ceremony on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, USA.
“The grants programme was established in 2010 and since then, more than 180 films have received funding. The original mission of the programme was to support voices from the Arab world,” said Benkirane. “This remains a central principle to our funding decisions as well as our focus on supporting local talent here in Qatar and the Gulf and also our recent expansion to allow some other countries to participate which helps us to further extend our international reach within the film industry,” he added.
The four entries is the highest number of submissions in a year for DFI.
Other movies submitted for the Oscars and financially supported by the DFI were Lust by Khaled El Hagar (Egypt) and Where Do We Go Now? by Nadine Labaki (Lebanon).
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is given to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.
The DFI is helping talents in the Arab world to realise filmmaking aspirations and filmmakers are also approaching the institute for supports In 2011, the DFI received about 190 applications for grants and this year about 350. The Peninsula
