Masters of cinema & global film professionals endorse Qumra for its innovative and purposeful approach and positive impact on regional industry
The 2016 Qumra Masters, project participants and international industry experts have actually feted the second edition of Qumra, the annual industry event by the Doha Film Institute, for catalysing the advancement of a vibrant regional movie industry and shaping the skillsets of emerging talent.
More than 100 industry professionals, consisting of international film festival directors, producers, fund managers, script specialists, sales agents, distributors and other experts participated in the event, which delivered meaningful experiences to individuals throughout three primary programs.
The very first was a series of Masterclasses by the 5 Qumra Masters-- film writer, director and leading US indie producer James Schamus; Turkish auteur and Cannes Palme d'Or winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Japanese Cannes Grand Prix winner writer/director Naomi Kawase; Russian auteur and Golden Lion winner Aleksandr Sokurov; and two-time Academy Award chose United States documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer. The sessions were open to the representatives of the 33 international projects picked by the Doha Film Institute for mentoring this year as well as a group of accredited market delegates from the Qatari film and media industries.
The 2nd part of Qumra was the industry program for the 33 selected projects in development and post-production, consisted of a series of mentoring and one-on-one sessions with the world's leading market professionals and a selection of work-in-progress and 'picture lock' screenings for jobs in their final stages. Over the six day event, the projects took part in an overall of 182 match-made conferences with producers and funds; 133 one-on-one bespoke tutorials with specialists and mentors; 25 specific 'Meet the Master' sessions with the Qumra Masters; seven rough-cut consultations; 7 script consultations; 20 working breakfast roundtable sessions; and more than 50 other individually meetings.
The third aspect was the Qumra Screenings-- a series of public screenings of works by the 5 Qumra Masters as well as movies supported by the Doha Film Institute grants programme showcased in the 'New Voices in Cinema' sector which took place at the Museum of Islamic Art auditorium and were accompanied by question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers.
