Doha Film Festival Made in Qatar DFI Local Filmmakers

For its inaugural edition, the Doha Film Festival marks a major expansion of the Doha Film Institute’s role in developing homegrown talent, an effort the institute has cultivated for 15 years through grants, labs and year-round training initiatives, including Qumra, Ajyal and earlier festival-style showcases. This year’s Made in Qatar competition brings that pipeline into full view with a slate of 10 shorts from Qatari and Qatar-based directors whose work has been shaped, supported, and mentored by the DFI network.

Of the competition program, festival director and DFI CEO Fatma Hassan Alremaihi said, “Supporting local filmmakers is not only a duty — it is a privilege and a source of great pride for the institute. Our storytellers open windows to our world, share our unique culture, and connect others to our own narratives.” She added that through Made in Qatar, the institute “celebrates the courage and creativity of filmmakers who are defining our cinematic identity and shaping a cultural legacy that extends far beyond our borders.”

The festival’s commitment to local voices is also echoed by filmmakers screening in the section. Fatma Al-Ghanim, whose documentary “Theatre of Dreams” revisits the first Qatar Women’s National Football Team, called this “an exciting time to be a filmmaker in Qatar,” crediting the strengthening ecosystem and “complete pipeline” built through DFI’s development and funding programs. Animator and lecturer Mohammed Al-Suwaidi, co-director of “Al-Aqiq: Darkness of Virtuality,” reflected on a decade of collaboration with the institute, noting, “I’ve seen the environment grow and the community mature. There’s real reason for hope.”

For director Fahad Al-Nahdi, “Project Aisha,” the long-term relationship with the institute has been foundational: “I have worked with DFI for 10 years across festivals and community events, and the growth has been remarkable — more resources, more funding, more opportunity for a stronger impact.” Documentary filmmaker Eiman Mirghani, screening “Villa 187,” emphasized how “DFI Workshops and programs like Qumra continue to nurture local and resident talent,” shaping a generation of filmmakers who have grown alongside the institute itself.

Together, these films form a snapshot of the voices shaping Qatar’s evolving screen culture. Below is a look at each of the 10 projects in this year’s Made in Qatar competition.

‘Al-Aqiq: Darkness of Virtuality’
Mohammed Al-Suwaidi & Kummam Al-Maadeed (Qatar)
Set in the near-future Gulf city of Juna, this animated short follows a rising wave of attacks carried out by a shadowy group known as the Trolls. When an architect’s grandfather is assaulted on camera, a trail of clues pulls him into a conflict where online distortion feeds real-world fear. Blending action with social commentary, the film charts his reluctant turn toward leadership as he joins a new generation determined to hold their city together.

‘Baba Is Melting’
Karim Emara (Qatar)
A longtime participant in DFI programs, including Ajyal, filmmaker Karim Emara channels that creative maturity into this tightly contained confrontation between father and son. As a young man challenges his father from a parked car just before Friday prayer, the film, set under Doha’s oppressive heat, reveals a secret second marriage and exposes the vulnerabilities, silences, and shifting masculinity beneath a seemingly ordinary moment.

‘Fahad the Furious’
Justin Kramer (Qatar)
Justin Kramer draws on more than a decade of collaboration within Qatar’s film community to tell this sharply observed family drama. When Fahad arrives at the mosque with a black eye, his conservative family’s inability to communicate sends them spiraling into assumptions about his life after dark. Set in modern Qatar, the short probes misinterpretation, silence, and the stories families invent when they can’t ask the real questions.

‘Is This a Sign?’
Maria Joseph (Qatar, India)
This fast-paced comedy unfolds in the frantic moments before a wedding ceremony, where a nervous bride contends with an overprotective father, a mischievous sibling, and the sudden disappearance of a precious family heirloom. Joseph’s film plays on cultural expectations and the chaos that surrounds milestone moments. “Casting was a challenge — I even found actors in supermarket aisles,” Joseph says. “My friends became my crew, and they were incredible.”

‘A Palm Branch’
Mahdi Al Ali (Qatar)
Mahdi Al Ali’s contemplative drama follows a woman moving through the quiet aftermath of loss, where domestic routines, vivid memories, and sea-based folklore begin to intertwine. Contrasts between the vibrant, dreamlike underwater world and the silence of her home reflect her inner struggle. In the end, a quiet ritual with a palm branch offers her a final attempt to let go and move toward something like peace.

‘Project Aisha’
Fahad Al-Nahdi (Qatar)
After a near-fatal accident leaves 12-year-old Aisha immobile, her neurosurgeon mother rejects medical advice and imposes her own strict regime of care inside their home. What begins as fierce protectiveness blurs into control, as the house turns into a monitored, rule-bound space and the film probes the thin line between safeguarding a child and isolating her entirely.

‘Qadha’ w Qadar’
Maryam Al-Mohammed (Qatar)
Set in Doha’s Family Court, Maryam Al-Mohammed’s drama follows Noor as she prepares to face her husband, his lawyer, and the judge as she seeks a divorce, already shaken by troubling news her sister shares moments before entering the courtroom. The film traces rising tension between public procedure and private stakes, capturing a woman navigating pressure, judgment, and the emotional weight of her choices.

‘Theatre of Dreams’
Fatma Al-Ghanim (Qatar)
Set against the backdrop of the FIFA Men’s World Cup Qatar 2022, this personal documentary tells the untold story of the first Qatar Women’s national soccer team. Following Al-Ghanim, who was team captain, more than a decade after she helped break cultural taboos to play, the film traces the courage, defiance, and sacrifices that shaped her journey.

‘Yom El Juma’’
Haya Al Kuwari (Qatar)
Mubarak, a short-tempered widowed father, cherishes Fridays, the weekly gathering that once kept his grown sons close. But when his eldest rushes off and leaves his spirited daughter in his care, the day takes an unexpected turn. As Mubarak babysits his headstrong granddaughter, the film gently observes a man confronting loneliness, shifting family realities, and the small moments that reconnect generations.

‘Villa 187’
Eiman Mirghani (Qatar, Sudan)
Eiman Mirghani turns the camera on her own family as they prepare to leave the Doha home they’ve lived in for more than three decades after her father unexpectedly loses his job and their visa is cancelled. As rooms are emptied and belongings packed, the film sifts through memories, displacement, and the uneasy question of belonging, capturing the uncertainty of a life built, then abruptly uprooted, in a place that was home but never fully theirs.