12th Edition to Offer Mentorship Support to 49 Projects from 39 Countries

• Selected Projects Include 27 features, 9 series and 13 shorts with 15 by Qatar based filmmakers
• 43 Projects from the MENA Region and 6 International

Doha, Qatar; February 24, 2026: In light of the recent developments in the region, Doha Film Institute (DFI) has moved the upcoming edition of Qumra online to ensure the safety and wellbeing of guests, projects and teams. The programme will continue to offer invaluable networking and mentorship support in virtual format to 49 global projects, from 27 March to 8 April 2026.

As the region’s first and longest-running industry initiative of its kind, Qumra champions first- and second-time filmmakers by providing bespoke mentorship, industry access and creative development across all stages of filmmaking. The 2026 cohort reflects a dynamic range of storytelling from intimate personal narratives to bold explorations of history, myth and identity, affirming Qumra as a vital platform for new cinematic voices from Qatar, the region and beyond.

From feature narratives to web series and shorts, the selected projects demonstrate the power of cinema to bridge the personal and the political, the local and universal, and the real and imagined. 27 features, 9 series and 13 shorts are included in the 49 projects with 47 of them supported by the Institute’s Grants Programme and 5 through DFI’s Qatari Film Fund. 43 projects are from the Middle East and North Africa Region and 6 International. 15 projects by Qatar based filmmakers including 10 by Qatari nationals, and 17 projects developed through DFI training programmes.

Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Film Institute, said: “While we are deeply saddened by the current circumstances in the region, the decision to present Qumra 2026 online reflects Qatar’s resilience and its enduring commitment to continuity, even in the face of significant challenges. Our priority remains to ensure that filmmakers and their projects continue to benefit from meaningful exchange, mentorship and connection. This year’s selection highlights the courage and ambition of today’s filmmakers and the urgency of the stories they are compelled to tell. We are proud to see our nation strongly represented alongside powerful perspectives from across the world.”

Qumra 2026 Projects Are:

Development – Feature Narrative

• Speak (Tunisia/France/Italy/Qatar) by Nejib Kthiri
  A black Tunisian boy strives to reclaim his voice in a society which would deny him one.
• The Peacock Queen (Qatar) by Aisha Al-Jaidah & Kholoud Al-Ali
  A Qatari brother and sister, lost in a world beneath Qatar, who must find three magic pearls to return home.
• The Guardian (Libya/Algeria/Canada/France/Qatar) by Muhannad Lamin
  Two brothers search a remote Libyan wadi for the elusive waddan, a wild mountain sheep; their only hope is a shepherd who refuses to lead them.
• The Missing Planet (Egypt/Germany/Italy/Poland/Qatar) by Marouan Omara & Tom Rosenberg
  A paramedic searches Cairo for his missing wife, guided by dreams sent from the future by his grieving daughter.
• Girl of Wind (Tunisia/Qatar) by Moufida Fedhila
  Skateboarding offers Aida escape in Tunisia, until her dying father returns, forcing her to confront the past and choose her future.
• When I Close My eyes, I See Your Eyes (Egypt/KSA/Qatar) by Sameh Alaa
  A woman’s life unravels after her husband dies suddenly in Cairo; transporting his body home, she finds her inner self.
• Amara (Lebanon/France/Denmark/Germany/Qatar) by Michelle Keserwany
  Darine lives in her own imaginary bubble, which is burst when confronted with the dark reality of a country in crisis.

Development – Feature Documentary or Essay

• Where Do I Belong? (Sudan/Qatar) by Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad
  Returning to a war zone to reunite with his parents, a director confronts the journeys of migration that shaped his third-culture childhood.
• Onions to Forget the Past (Lebanon/France/Qatar) by Emilien Awada
  Born of a forbidden love, I follow my parents’ secret wartime letters, tracing a family history shaped by Lebanon’s divisions.
• Portrait of A (Jordan/Germany/Qatar) by Rand Beiruty
  Over seven years, ‘Portrait of A’ traces Andrea, a Roma immigrant, blending observation and stop-motion animation to explore love, betrayal, and motherhood.

Development – Short Narrative

• Reset (Qatar) by Dhoha Abdelsattar
  In Doha, 2002, 12-year-old Noura’s Tamagotchi dies, triggering her first confrontation with the inevitability of change.
• A Disguised Practice (Qatar) by Hamad Jassim AlFayhani
  In an alternate Qatar, a history teacher investigates his grandfather’s disappearance at sea as he inherits a destiny written in water.
• memorandum of understanding (working title) (Qatar) by Ali Madi Alhajri
  Mariam follows a pull toward a stranger, moving through suspicion and desire as dance fractures the line between discovery and silence.
• Sara's Shoes (Iran/Qatar) by Fereshteh Parnian
  An impulsive purchase sends a working mother on a quiet, transformative afternoon where she rediscovers herself beyond duty and routine.
• Until the Rain Stops (Palestine/Jordan/Qatar) by Jehad Hallaq
  After a tragic attack, Haneen fights to save her Jerusalem home, forcing her to confront both her grief and the violence closing in.

Development – TV or Web Series

• Echoes (Lebanon/Qatar) by Marie-Rose Osta
  In ‘Echoes’, myths don’t stay in the past. They cross into the present, binding two women across time.
• Arab Love (Tunisia/Egypt/KSA/Morocco/Qatar) by Nejib Belkadhi
  An online love between an Egyptian mother and a Tunisian flight attendant ignites family wars, social media violence, and impossible choices.
• The Gate of Resurrection (Palestine/Qatar) by Firas Khoury
  A grieving video editor, who sabotages state TV, is recruited by an Assassin sect and forced into revolt to save his brother.
• Visions of the After (Lebanon/Qatar) by Ali Hamouch and Toufic El-Khoury
  In a futuristic totalitarian Levant, Dalal finds herself at the intersection of a crisis, a conspiracy and a rebellion.
• Like a Feather in the Breeze (Egypt/Qatar) by Sherif Elbendary
  Although Tarek and Laila are both searching for their soulmates, they cross paths without ever truly meeting, until Madame Salwa decides to step in.

In Production – Feature Narrative

• Madness and Honey Days (Iraq/Canada/UK/Luxembourg/KSA/Qatar) by Ahmed Yassin Al-Daradji
  Accused of treason for a line onstage, a theatre actor escapes execution by feigning insanity and is sent to a Baghdad asylum.

In Production – Feature Documentary or Essay

• Souad and Lamine (Tunisia/Qatar) by Mohamed Ali Nahdi
  As Alzheimer’s erases his mother, a filmmaker explores his parents’ fierce love, where art, memory, and survival intertwine.
• Mother Street (Morocco/France/Qatar) by El Amine Benhachem
  Homeless Moroccan children flee the streets of Casablanca for the Goutte d’Or slum in Paris, hoping to find a better life.
• Everything She Didn’t Say (Algeria/France/Qatar) by Farah Abada
  After my journalist father was murdered in Algeria’s ‘Black Decade’, memory and humour reveal how our family learned to survive.

In Production – TV or Web Series

• Legacy of Light: House of Wisdom (USA/Qatar) by Maha Al-Naemi and Spencer Striker
  An AI-animated docudrama chronicles Al-Khwarizmi’s journey to the House of Wisdom, where he invented the algorithm and became a legend.
• A Lover’s Manifesto (Lebanon/France/Qatar) by Alfred Tarazi
  An animated history of Beirut, tracing its transformation from 1860 to 1982, forged by revolution before descending into civil war.

Work-in-progress – Feature Narrative

• People of Solitude (Algeria/France/Qatar) by Tariq Teguia
  Amjad, the smuggler; Artemis, the paleoanthropologist; and Faune, tasked with releasing a hostage, go to the Sahara, where good and bad geniuses meet.
• Hamlet From The Slums (working title) (Egypt/France/KSA/Qatar) by Ahmed Fawzi-Saleh
  Ahmed, the son of Cairo’s junkyard king, has to avenge his best friend’s death, even if it means confronting his father.

Work-in-progress – Feature Documentary or Essay

• Rooted in the Wind (Iran/Qatar) by Mohammad Sadegh Esmaeili
  After her father’s execution, 12-year-old Jamileh must fight to prevent an early marriage and keep her undocumented Afghan family together in Iran.
• My Mother & I (Iraq/Egypt/France/Qatar) by Dilpak Majeed
  A Yazidi woman finds herself at a crossroads between the comfort of solitude and the uncertain promise of a new chapter, as changes begin to flow through her once-quiet world.
• Choreography of a Tyrant (Syria/France/Qatar) by Qutaiba Barhamji
  The discovery of censored images of Hafez al-Assad exposes how a single flaw can unravel a carefully engineered myth.
• The Language of Water (Venezuela/Dominican Republic/Peru/Qatar) by Jeissy Trompiz Albornoz
  Jofris, the last speaker of an Indigenous language, is called home by his grandmother’s dreams, against his will.

Work-in-progress – Short Narrative

• Where the Sun Never Sets (Morocco/France/Qatar) by Yassine Ouahrani
  When a person dear to him leaves the factory, a worker seeks a smuggler's services to erase their memory.
• Ghafleh (Lebanon/Qatar) by Tony El Ghazal
  Struggling to make up for lost time, a watchmaker races to craft his daughter’s watch before their seconds tick away.
• Sundial (Sudan/Egypt/USA/Qatar) by Atheel Elmalik
  In the midst of escaping the war in Sudan, teenage Najma must rely on the sun for one last chance to see Ziyad.
• A Donkey Will (Qatar/Uzbekistan) by Majid Al-Remaihi
  A retelling of a folktale, ‘A Donkey Will’ reimagines the figure of Nasreddin, a folkloric jester figure, in modern-day Bukhara.

Work-in-progress – Short Documentary or Essay

• NESYAN (Qatar/Lebanon) by Aya Al Blouchi
  ‘NESYAN’ follows the One, the Other, and the Ghost, exploring loss, memory, distance, and the unseen presence shaping separation.

Work-in-Progress – TV or Web Series

• The Walled Off Hotel VR Experience (Palestine/Germany/Netherlands/KSA/Qatar) by Amer Shomali
  Trapped in Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel, you and Ka the parrot uncover life behind the wall where art, humour, and politics meet.

Picture Lock – Feature Narrative

• Pipes (Lebanon/Qatar) by Karim Kassem
  A retired water authority worker is called back to search for a missing pipe causing havoc in a quiet village.
• Fuxi: Joy in Four Chapters (Hong Kong/Taiwan/Qatar) by Qiu Jiongjiong
  Spanning four millennia, four feasts invite us to dine with the living, dying, dead and long dead alike.
• Radiesthesia (Chile/Argentina/Brazil/France/Qatar) by Jairo Boisier Olave
  Judith (15) possesses the mysterious gift of finding water underground—until one day she finds something else in an old well.
• House of the Wind (Cameroon/France/Belgium/Benin/KSA/Qatar) by Bernard Auguste Kouemo Yanghu
  Josette, 75, struggling with her loneliness in Yaoundé, oversees the construction of a house for one of her sons living abroad.

Picture Lock – Feature Documentary or Essay

• Revolutionaries Never Die (Palestine/Belgium/Qatar) by Mohanad Yaqubi
  An archive-based cinematic dialogue where Jocelyne Saab’s celluloid confronts memory and resistance through restoration and remembrance.
• Bardi (Morocco/France/Qatar) by Tala Hadid
  Through the rhythm of bodies, horses, dust and song, ‘Bardi’ explores contemporary questions of masculinity and transformation.
• When The News Breaks You (Qatar/Palestine/Greece/Lebanon/Turkey) by Hamad Al Hajri The struggle of journalists working in the Middle East.

Picture Lock – Short Narrative

• Light to Ashes (Qatar/France) by Nadia Al-Khater
  A young Bedouin poet and his sister’s quiet desert life is disrupted when a wounded tribesman returns to camp.

Picture Lock – Short Documentary Or Essay

• In The Silence After (Colombia/USA/Qatar) by Sebastian Delascasas
  A son returns home to care for his mother, filming the last year they will spend together.
• Threads Of Support (Qatar/Uzbekistan) by Olya Korsun
  A poetic yet critical meditation on silk weaving in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan.

Showcase – TV or Web Series

• Captain Shedeed (Egypt/Qatar) by Ramy El Gabry
  An ordinary father becomes a reluctant hero to stop a deadly virus and confront the cost of true responsibility.