The Doha Film Festival has unveiled its competition lineup for its inaugural edition, highlighting powerful regional storytelling and a strong focus on Palestine. The festival will take place from November 20 to 28 across several venues in the Qatari capital, including the Katara Cultural Village, Msheireb Downtown Doha and the Museum of Islamic Art, reports Variety.
Opening the festival out of competition will be the Middle East premiere of Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a politically charged drama based on the true story of a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped in a car after it was attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza. The film, which recently won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, is supported by the Doha Film Institute (DFI), as are most of the 13 competition titles.
Palestine will have a major presence in this year’s lineup. Among the entries are “Once Upon a Time in Gaza,” directed by Palestinian filmmakers Tarzan and Arab Nasser, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and earned the Best Directing Prize. Also competing is Kamal Aljafari’s “With Hasan in Gaza,” a documentary that debuted in competition at the Locarno Film Festival.
Other standout films include “The President’s Cake” by Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi, which follows a schoolgirl tasked with baking a dessert for Saddam Hussein’s birthday and earned this year’s Cannes Camera d’Or. The lineup also features “Khartoum,” a documentary chronicling five residents forced to flee Sudan’s capital during the conflict that premiered at Sundance, and “Divine Comedy,” Iranian director Ali Asgari’s dark satire on censorship in Iranian cinema.
“These powerful artistic expressions represent the creativity and resilience of humanity and demonstrate the capability of film to shape the future of our societies,” said Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute. “Through these stories that engage empathy, reflection and connection, we are creating safe spaces for meaningful dialogue to counter prevailing narratives.”
The festival marks a new chapter for Qatar’s film landscape as the country continues to expand its cultural and media presence beyond the energy sector. Building on the success of DFI’s former Ajyal Film Festival, which focused on youth and family-friendly cinema, the revamped event aims to reach a wider audience with four competition categories: international feature film, short film, the youth-led Ajyal competition and Made in Qatar, which celebrates locally produced projects regardless of the filmmaker’s nationality.
Top prizes include Best Narrative Feature worth 75,000 dollars, Best Documentary worth 50,000 dollars, Artistic Achievement worth 45,000 dollars and a Gender-Neutral Performance Award worth 15,000 dollars.
The complete competition lineup spans a mix of regional and international titles, including “Cotton Queen” by Suzannah Mirghani, “My Father and Qaddafi” by Jihan K, “Renoir” by Chie Hayakawa, “Sleepless City” by Guillermo García López, “The Last Shore” by Jean-Francois Ravagnan, “The Reserve” by Pablo Pérez Lombardini, “Hair, Paper, Water” by Truong Minh Quý and Nicolas Graux, and “Blue Heron” by Sophy Romvari. Together, these films reflect the festival’s mission to champion diverse perspectives and the resilience of the human spirit through cinema.
