Doha Film Festival to launch in November 2025 | News

Qatar’s Doha Film Institute (DFI) is planning to launch the inaugural Doha Film Festival in November 2025, revealed Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, CEO of the DFI, at the opening ceremony of the DFI’s Ajyal Film Festival on November 16.

Full details will be announced at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025.

Alremaihi, also the festival director of Ajyal, said the fresh event will “echo the dreams and aspirations of filmmakers and creative storytellers from near and far, as we mark the next chapter of our cinematic journey”.

This year is the 12^th edition of Ajyal, following the decision to pause the event last year due to the Israel-Gaza war and is themed ‘Moments that Matter’. 

“Witnessing the catastrophe in Gaza taught us that every moment matters, for it could be the last,” said Alremaihi, at the ceremony which took place at the Katara Opera House. “It also made us see the fundamental truth that we have the ability to channel the power of cinema to do good. We decided to confront the catastrophe and dared to imagine holding Ajyal in Gaza itself.

”It unfolded in three stages with 90 teenage jurors in Gaza watching films made in Qatar, with their votes to be announced on the closing day. They join over 550 other teenage Ajyal jurors from around the world to empower youth through cinema.” 

She confirmed the youth-focused Ajyal (the Arabic word for ‘generations’) will remain an integral part of the fresh Doha Film Festival.

The festival’s teenage jurors, an integral part of Ajyal, will also participate in voting for their favorite films in the fresh festival as Ajyal expands to include events around the world. Most recently ‘Ajyal in Gaza’ where 90 teenage jurors in Gaza watched and voted on films from the ‘Made in Qatar’ programme. The event took place during  three consecutive Saturdays ending November 9th, with the jurors watching on a  large screen. 

Ajyal opened wtih a screening of Hind Meddeb’s DFI-backed documentary Sudan, Remember Us, about a youth movement that is uses words, poems and chants to fight for freekdom. It is also screening at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). 

Building on the success of Ajyal Film Club in Qatar, and coinciding with the  Qatar-Morocco 2024 Year of Culture, an Ajyal Film Club took place in Tangier in September, in partnership with Tanjaflam, which operates Cinema Alcazar. Films screened included Pascal Plisson’s We Have a Dream and 2023 Arab Stars of Tomorrow Cynthia Madanat Sharaiha’s animated feature Saleem.

Qumra

The DFI also hosts the talent incubator Qumra annually each March. First and second-time filmmakers, all DFI grantees, receive mentoring, masterclasses and working sessions with leading international figures. The core of DFI’s mission is to encourage Arab and international filmmakers and to develop a sustainable film industry in Qatar and the wider region. 

Films supported by the DFI go on to participate in  A-list festivals around the world. Ten DFI-financed films have even been nominated for Academy Awards and Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman won the Oscar in 2017. Mahdi Fleifel’s To A Land Unknown is one of the DFI-backed films in this year’s conversation.

Qumra evolved from the audience-facing Tribeca Doha Film Festival which took place from 2009 until 2012.

Ajyal 2024 continues through November 23 at what is a busy time for film festivals in the Middle East and North Africa. The Marrakech International Film Festival runs from November 29-December 7 and the Red Sea International Film Festival is taking place from December 6 -14.