Doha Film Institute recognises the rise of emerging talent in the region and the fundamental role producers play in defining, supporting and influencing the voice of filmmakers.
This workshop is an opportunity for local and MENA-based producers to develop their skills further with experts in the field, in a small and intimate group of up to a maximum of 10 projects. Further, our hope is to strengthen co-productions in the MENA region, to open networking opportunities and to improve the overall quality of projects developed in the region.
This intensive seven-day programme takes place in Doha and focuses on the creative, artistic and strategic aspects of producing a feature-length documentary and fiction films. Through intensive training exercises, group tutorials, tailor-made one-on-one meetings and master classes led by noted industry experts, participants will gain deeper insight into various elements of film producing and come to truly understand the role of a producer.
Participants will have the opportunity to explore film marketing & distribution strategies with an in-depth focus on targeting the right audiences, understanding international markets and employing effective sales tactics.
A number of case studies will be presented throughout the sessions, enabling participants to address questions related to script development, executive production, finance and budget plans, marketing, pitching and distribution. Industry standard technical documents and templates will be shared with participants and discussed in detail – e.g. budget, financing plan, distribution and sales strategy samples, and treatment and pitch examples.
Deadline for Applications: 29 October 2017
Workshop Dates: 12 – 18 November 2017
Language of the Workshop: Arabic and English
Price: QAR 2,000.00
Ability Level: Intermediate to advanced
8 to 10 Qatar and MENA-based producers with a project in development will be selected.
Programme Content:
- In-depth understanding of the producer’s role in all stages of film production (relationship between producers and writers, producers and directors etc.)
- Understanding the responsibility of various types of producers, (e.g. creative producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, executive producer etc.)
- Introduction to the producer’s approach to script and development, structural analysis and creative production
- Different strategies for creating detailed budgets and financial plans
- How to apply to film funds; presenting to key international film institutions; eligible funds for regional filmmakers
- Developing co-production strategies
- Developing a marketing plan – creating audience awareness and packaging film content
- Guidelines to implement key marketing tools for online and social media platforms.
- Pitch training
- Film festival and market strategies
- Legal aspects of sales and distribution
- Creating classic and alternative sales and distribution strategies
Eligibility:
The workshop is designed for producers, investors, financiers, directors and film students, or anyone interested in entering the filmmaking business in the area of production. Participants must be based in Qatar or in the MENA region. A total of eight to ten participants will be selected for the workshop.
- Candidates must have a feature-length project in development with a director/screenwriter associated to the project
- The director/screenwriter will be able to partake in some aspects of the programme
- Ideally, candidates have produced at least one short or feature-length narrative or documentary film in the past
- Candidates must be Qatari nationals or residents of Qatar or MENA nationals
- Candidates from the MENA region are responsible for funding their own travel and accommodation
Submission Requirements:
Please send the following in Word or PDF format to
training@dohafilminstitute.com
- Short synopsis of the project in development (maximum one page)
- Long synopsis
- Treatment of the film
- Résumé and short biography of the producer, as well as same for director and screenwriter, if available
- Script (if available)
- Detailed information about what is required for the project’s development
- A letter outlining why you want to participate in this workshop
- Any of the following, if available/applicable
- Provisional budget and financing plan (in USD)
- Technical specifications, including filming locations
- Current state of the project (please note any secured professionals, possible co-producers, attached talent or other potential partners)
- Director’s statement, covering project virtues (one page maximum)
- Stills, concept art, mood boards etc.
- Links to teasers, trailers, demo reel or samples of previous work of both the director and the producer
Schedule Overview
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Group tutorials / Case studies / working in groups
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM: Lunch break
2:30 PM – 6:30 PM: One-on-one tutorials
Film Case Study: Case study on a specific film screened during the workshop where the Producer Expert share with the participants their experience of a film they produced (budget plan, script, relation producer/director, co-production and financing strategy, festivals and distribution strategy and sales, success and challenges faced during the production of the film, etc.)
One on one advising Sessions: Individual 45 min advisory sessions tailored to the needs of the project at hand where the participants will receive special advice on their projects (Scripts, Financing plan and budget, pitching and packaging, production team…)
Group Work: working sessions between participants and the Projects Coach in an informal atmosphere where participants share their projects and concerns to each other, and discuss the challenges they are facing in the region. During those sessions the participants will also have the possibility to work in a group on their projects and develop together their budget and financing plans, film packaging and Pitch Training.
Group Tutorials: Group advisory sessions where the Lab mentors will cover a broad range of subjects, from financing strategies and legal considerations for co-productions, to festival strategies and sales.
MENTORS
*Jovan Marjanović*
Lab leader
Jovan Marjanović has been involved in the Sarajevo Film Festival since 1999, first as a technician and programme coordinator and later as the CineLink manager. He is now on the festival’s Executive Board as Head of Industry. Marjanović has produced a number of award-winning
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documentaries, shorts and feature films and consults for several international film institutions. He was on the Board of Management of the Bosnian National Film Fund from 2011 and headed it from 2014 to 2016. He has served as the National Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Eurimages since 2006. He holds an MSc from the Cass Business School in London, and teaches Film Business at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo.
In 1995, towards the end of the four-year-long Siege of Sarajevo, the Obala Art Centre initiated the Sarajevo Film Festival with the aim of helping to reconstruct civil society and retain the cosmopolitan spirit of its city. Today, over two decades later, it is a trailblazing film festival with a special focus on the region of Southeast Europe that shines an international spotlight on the region’s talent, their current films and future projects. High-quality programming, a strong industry segment, and an educational and networking platform for young filmmakers attract the international film industry, film authors and media representatives to the event, along with a public audience of more than 100,000. Together, this makes it a leading film festival in Southeastern Europe.
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*Violeta Bava*
Producers Lab Advisor
Violeta Bava was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2002, she received a double degree in the Theory, Aesthetics and History of Cinema and Drama from Buenos Aires University. Bava is the programmer of the Buenos Aires International Film Festival and the co-founder of BAL,
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a leading co-production market for Latin American films. She has been program consultant at Bratislava Film Festival and has collaborated with Open Doors Program (Locarno Film Festival). Since 2012, she has been the Latin American delegate for the Venice International Film Festival. She sits on the Torino Film Lab Advisory Board and is a regional consultant for the Doha Film Institute. In the past two editions she has been Producer’s Tutor at Biennale College Cinema. She is also founder and Producer at Ruda Cine, a film production company based in Argentina.
Ruda Cine is a production company based in Buenos Aires focus on author driven films. The company produced and presented this year the feature-length films ‘The Idea of a Lake’ by Milagros Mumenthaler (2016) and ‘The Human Surge’ by Eduardo Williams (2016), winner of the Golden Leopard for the Best Film at Locarno Film Festival. Ruda Cine’s catalogue also includes: ‘Two Shots Fired’ (2014) by Martín Rejtman, winner of the FIPRESCI Award for the Best Argentinean Film of the Year, and Milagros Mumenthaler’s ‘Back to Stay’, winner of the Pardo d’Oro for Best Film, the Pardo d’Argento for Best Actress and the FIPRESCI Award at the Film Festival Locarno in 2011, among many other awards and recognitions.
BAFICI, a 12-day-long film festival that started in 1999, is the biggest film festival in Latin America and takes place every April in Buenos Aires. It celebrates a rich and diverse culture with the works of renowned directors and up-and-coming talents. The event showcases an innovative range of films, including world premieres and new releases of Argentinean cinema, together with international retrospectives of the work of key filmmakers from the independent cinema world and the publication of a couple of books every year. The Buenos Aires Lab, BAL, the leading co-production market for Latin American films, was the first of its kind in the region. The BAFICI programme comprises Talents Buenos Aires, organised together with the Universidad del Cine (Buenos Aires), and Talents Berlinale.
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*Dora Bouchoucha*
Producer Expert
Dora Bouchoucha graduated with a degree in English Literature and has been a film producer since 1994. Through her company Nomadis Images, she has produced and coproduced several Tunisian and international documentary, short and feature-length films. Her films have been selected for film festivals
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in Venice, Cannes and Berlin.Bouchoucha founded the Carthage Film Festival Projects Workshop in 1992, and Takmil in 2014. She founded the Sud Écriture workshops in 1997, which she continues to run, and is actively involved in training and promoting southern cinema. She was a permanent member of the International Rotterdam Festival CineMart Board for more than 10 years, and was a consultant for Arab and African films for the selection committee of the Venice International Film Festival from 2007 to 2011. In 2010, Bouchoucha was appointed Head of Fonds Sud, and in 2012, she became President of the CNC Aide aux cinémas du monde. She headed the Carthage Film Festival in 2008, 2010 and 2014. At the 2015 Festival de Cannes, she was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. The most recent film she produced, Mohamed Ben Attia’s ‘Hedi, was selected for the Official Competition of the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, where it took the Silver Bear for best actor as well as the Best First Feature prize
Nomadis Images is a Tunisian audiovisual production company whose main activities include the production of short and feature-length fiction films, documentaries and commercials; service provision; and training. The company’s filmography includes ‘Hedi’ (2016), ‘Buried Secrets’ (2009), ‘Barakat’ (2006) and ‘Satin Rouge’ (2002).
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*Jad Abi Khalil*
Projects Coach
Jad Abi-Khalil was born in Lebanon and completed his cinema studies at the Université Saint-Joseph in 1998. He has directed numerous short films and feature-length documentaries, and began producing feature documentaries in 2007. Abi-Khalil is a founding member of Beirut DC, the cultural association for Arabic cinema,
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and chaired its board of directors from 2009 to 2013. He was Head of the DOCmed programme from 2011 to 2013. Currently, Abi-Khalil is Head of the Beirut Cinema Platform.
Beirut DC is a Lebanese cultural association, created in 1999 by a group of filmmakers and arts advocates. The association’s main activities are producing independent documentaries; organising capacity-building workshops with young Arab filmmakers; and staging the biennal Beirut Cinema Days film festival as well as several Arab film weeks in Europe and in the Arab world.
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*Jana Wehbe*
Project Coach
Jana Wehbe studied filmmaking at IESAV, Beirut and modern oriental singing at the Lebanese National High Music Conservatory.
She has worked with renowned directors such as Maryam Keshavarez, Nadine Labaki, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Greige.
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Working with production companies in Lebanon and the region, she has produced a range of film from documentaries and fiction, to TV commercials. These include 'Tannoura Maxi', 'The Lebanese Rocket Society', 'The Taste of Cement', 'Tombe du ciel', and many more. Along with like-minded artists, she co-founded 'The Attic' boutique production company in 2009. Before joining the Doha Film Institute in 2011, where she now works on their busy annual festivals.
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*Raquel Cabrera Simón*
Marketing Expert

Raquel is The Film Agency’s account manager of transnational and innovative initiatives such as ‘Walk This Way’ and branded-content projects such as ‘Brandstorm’, and the second edition of the Correos Film Festival. She is responsible for liaising with brand and media partners for the vast majority of The Film Agency’s campaign activity. She has also coordinated marketing campaigns for clients like Morena Films, Telecinco, Mod Producciones, Royal Opera House of London, Fox or Mediapro, among others. Raquel had previous experience in production companies such as Morena Films and Mediaset, and Spanish companies like Mapfre and Endesa.
*Aranka Matits*
Sales Expert

Aranka Matits, as the founder of Featurette, advises distributors and sales agents on their acquisitions, co-productions and strategic planning. At the forefront of the ever-changing media landscape, she consults them on the evolving practices of distribution and production, creating opportunities for them to exploit new markets. She works with a range of clients such as theatrical distributors Version Originale (France), immersive cinema enterprise Secret Cinema, and on-demand platform SundanceNOW. Aranka’s acquisitions include Oscar-winning box office successes like ‘Still Alice’ or Amour, festival hits like ‘Toni Erdmann’ and ‘The Florida Project’ as well as breakout debuts such as ‘Wadjda’ or ‘Mustang’.
*Jani Thiltges*
Head of Studies, EAVE
Born in 1962, Jani Thiltges studied film at INSAS in Brussels from 1984 to 1988. Since 1986, Jani is co-founder, partner and CEO of SAMSA FILM in Luxembourg. He is also co-founder and partner of ARTEMIS PRODUCTIONS (Belgium), FADO FILMES (Portugal),
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LIAISON CINEMATOGRAPHIQUE (Paris) and, more recently, with his partner Claude Waringo, and through their holding CODECA, they created a Berlin-based company, IGC FILMS, with the collaboration of the German producer, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad. They are also involved in French famous distribution company BAC FILMS.
At SAMSA FILM, in association with his partner/producer Claude WARINGO, they succeeded in building the company’s strong reputation and capacity in producing commercial art house films. So far, Jani has produced and co-produced more than 60 feature films. Jani THILTGES is also Head of Studies of EAVE. In 2004, he was decorated by the Luxembourg Grand-Duke for his activities in the cinematographic field. In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Eurimages, together with Diana Elbaum. From 2012 to 2014, Jani Thiltges was Board Member of the European Film Academy
With his partners Claude Waringo and Bernard Michaux, he manages SAMSA FILM which is, by its size and number of its productions, the first production company in Luxembourg.He has recently produced Sam Garbarski’s fifth feature film, “Es war einmal in Deutschland…” (aka “Bye Bye Germany”), starring Moritz Bleibtreu, Antje Trau and Mark Ivanir in the main parts. The film was selected at the 2017 Berlinale in the section “Berlinale Special Gala”.
We can find his name in the credits of, a.o., these acclaimed or successful productions: “Möbius” (Eric Rochant), “A perdre la raison” (Joachim Lafosse), “Ne te retourne pas” (Marina de Van), “JCVD” (Mabrouk El Mechri), “Irina Palm” (Sam Garbarski), “Comme t’y es belle” (Lisa Azuelos), “Une Liaison Pornographique” (Frédéric Fonteyne).
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