Doha Tribeca Film Festival opens Nov,17

Thirty countries, including 29 Middle East and North Africa premieres will show there latest films at the fourth edition of Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF), scheduled from November 17 to 24. The films are from France, Germany, India, Iran, UK, China and the US and Festival debutants including Kazakhstan, Senegal, Ethiopia, and other Arab countries. DTFF vice-chair Issa bin Mohamed Al-Mohannadi, said that the selection of films from around the world this year underlines DFI’s commitment to bringing the best of local, regional, and international cinema for Qatar’s community. Under the Special Screenings programme, DTFF will show Toronto International Film Festival’s 2012:Scenes from Kon-Tiki, Audience Award winner, David O Russell’s Silver Lining Playbook (US) featuring Robert De Niro. Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths (US) is set to play amongst other titles including the late popular Indian filmmaker Yash Chopra’s last film Jab Tak Hai Jaan (Till I Breathe This Life). The week-long Festival comes to a close with the screening of Peter Ramsey’s Rise of the Guardians, a 3D animated fantasy adventure based on William Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood book series. DTFF 2012 will also host complimentary beach screenings for the local community including the first title selected by Martin Scorsese for restoration by the World Cinema Foundation, Ahmed El Maanouni’s Trances, in addition to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (The Brave Hearted Will Take the Bride) by Aditya Chopra, Guiseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso, Steven Spielberg’s ET the Extra-Terrestrial and Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven. Six of the selected Contemporary World Cinema titles are official country selections for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 2013 including Children of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Just the Wind (Hungary), Kon-Tiki (Norway), The Deep (Iceland), Myn Bala – Warriors of the Steppe (Kazakhstan) and White Tiger (Russia). The section also includes works by acknowledged filmmakers such as Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share, Matteo Garrone’s Reality, and Markus Imhoof’s More Than Honey. The Contemporary World Cinema line-up brings some of this year’s most poignant tales to Doha including Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching for Sugar Man, winner of ‘The World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary’ at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Umut Dag’s Kuma which opened the Berlinale’s Panorama section this year; Valentino’s Ghost by Michael Singh, which premiered at the 2012 Venice International Film Festival; Dominga Sotomayor’s Thursday Till Sunday, winner of the ‘Tiger Award’ at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Everybody in our Family by Radu Jude; Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki. Rounding out celebrations of the 40th year of diplomatic relations between Qatar and Japan, DTFF 2012 will present ‘Japanese Snapshots’, a curated programme including Trace by Naomi Kawase and Lucy Walker’s The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom; in addition to a year-round Museum of Islamic Arts Programming handover between Japan and UK. Ludmila Cvikova, head of International Programming at DFI, described the final selection of international films at DTFF 2012 as the right balance of auteurs and acknowledged filmmakers. With an expanded Festival format this year, DTFF 2012 will showcase over 87 films from across the globe under distinct themed sections including Arab Film Competition, Made in Qatar, Contemporary World Cinema, Special Screenings and Tribute to Algerian Cinema. Indoor and outdoor screenings will take place at Katara Cultural Village, Museum of Islamic Arts (MIA), and Souq Waqif. The Festival is hosting an array of large community events, including Family Days, panel discussions, networking events and educational filmmaking programmes including Doha Talks and Doha Projects.