<\/p>\n
The upcoming Doha Film Festival has unveiled its competition lineup, characterized by a strong regional component and an accent on the Palestinian plight.<\/p>\n
As previously announced, the Middle East premiere of Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s politically charged drama \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d is set as the out-of-competition opener of the event\u2019s inaugural edition, which will run Nov. 20\u201328 in the Qatari capital.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d which tells the true story of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was stranded in a car that was attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and later found dead, recently won\u00a0Venice Film Festival\u2019s Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize. The film is supported by the Doha Film Institute (DFI), as are most titles in the Doha Film Festival\u2019s 13-title competition.<\/p>\n Also featuring Palestine are Doha fest competition entries \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Gaza,\u201d directed by Palestinian directorial duo Tarzan and Arab Nasser, which world premiered in Cannes\u2019 Un Certain Regard and won the best directing prize; and Kamal Aljafari\u2019s doc \u201cWith Hasan in Gaza,\u201d that premiered in competition in Locarno.<\/p>\n Other standout titles in the competition strand include \u201cThe President\u2019s Cake\u201d from Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi, about a young school girl chosen to bake a celebratory dessert in observation of Saddam Hussein\u2019s birthday, which won this year\u2019s Cannes Camera d\u2019Or award; \u201cKhartotum,\u201d the potent doc about five residents forced to flee the Sudanese capital\u2019s conflict that launched from Sundance; and Iranian director Ali Asgari\u2019s dark comedy about Iranian film censorship,\u00a0\u201cDivine Comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese powerful artistic expressions represent the creativity and resilience of humanity and demonstrate the capability of film to shape the future of our societies,\u201d said \u00a0Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Hassan Alremaihi in a statement. \u201cThrough these stories that engage empathy, reflection and connection, we are creating safe spaces for meaningful dialogue to counter prevailing narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n Just as the tiny Arab state, rich in oil and gas, diversifies from the energy sector into cultural and media and entertainment \u2014 as attested by broadcaster Al Jazeera and the\u00a02022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament \u2014 the DFI has steadily grown into a crucial cornerstone of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region film industry.<\/p>\n The upcoming Doha Film Festival transforms the DFI\u2019s existing Ajyal Film Festival, dedicated to youth and family-friendly cinema,\u00a0into a more ambitious international event for a broader audience. It will have four competition strands: international feature film competition, short film competition, the Ajyal film competition (judged by the festival\u2019s unique youth jury) and the Made in Qatar competition, dedicated to projects made in Qatar regardless of the director\u2019s provenance.<\/p>\n The top prizes to be dished out will be best narrative, worth $75,000; documentary, worth $50,000; artistic achievement, worth $45,000; and the gender-neutral performance acting award, worth $15,000.<\/p>\n The new festival will take place in various locations across Doha including the Katara Cultural Village, Msheireb Downtown Doha and the Museum of Islamic Art.<\/p>\n See the full Doha Film Festival competition lineup below.<\/p>\n \u201cKhartoum,\u201d\u00a0Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Philip Cox<\/p>\n \u201cCotton Queen,\u201d\u00a0Suzannah Mirghani<\/p>\n \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Gaza,\u201d\u00a0Tarzan and Arab Nasser<\/p>\n \u201cWith Hassan in Gaza,\u201d\u00a0Kamal Aljafari<\/p>\n \u201cThe President\u2019s Cake,\u201d Hasan Hadi<\/p>\n \u201cMy Father and Qaddafi,\u201d\u00a0Jihan K<\/p>\n \u201cRenoir,\u201d\u00a0Chie Hayakawa<\/p>\n \u201cSleepless City,\u201d Guillermo Garc\u00eda L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n \u201cThe Last Shore,\u201d\u00a0Jean-Francois Ravagnan<\/p>\n \u201cThe Reserve,\u201d Pablo P\u00e9rez Lombardini<\/p>\n \u201cDivine Comedy,\u201d\u00a0Ali Asgari<\/p>\n \u201cHair, Paper, Water,\u201d\u00a0Truong Minh Qu\u00fd and Nicolas Graux<\/p>\n \u201cBlue Heron,\u201d\u00a0Sophy Romvari<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The upcoming Doha Film Festival has unveiled its competition lineup, characterized by a strong regional component and an accent on the Palestinian plight. As previously announced, the Middle East premiere of Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s politically charged drama \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d is set as the out-of-competition opener of the event\u2019s inaugural edition, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2092637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[359072,394115,317163,308807,363715,333428],"class_list":["post-2092636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-dfi","tag-doha-film-institute","tag-film-festival","tag-gaza","tag-the-voice-of-hind-rajab","tag-venice-film-festival"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Doha-Film-Festival-Unveils-Competition-Lineup-With-Emphasis-on-Gaza.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2092636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2092638,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092636\/revisions\/2092638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2092637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2092636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2092636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2092636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}