AN OSCAR ON THE CARDS?

Doha Film Institute has announced that Qatar’s first ever Oscar-qualified film is in consideration for the Academy Award.

It’s a proud moment for Qatar to have the home-grown documentary short subject, And Then They Burn The Sea, produced by Doha Film Institute and directed by Majid Al-Remaihi, as the country’s first ever Oscar-qualified film in consideration for the Academy Award. The production was also Qatar’s first at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival, where it was screened and shortlisted for the Concorso Internazionale competition. Additionally, it won Best Short at Vienna Shorts and the Silver Tanit Award at Carthage Film Festival. Further, it was shortlisted for the IDA Documentary Awards and screened as part of The Short Contenders programme at USC, in Los Angeles, with Al-Remaihi in presence.

The film is a poetic, visual essay of love and loss as experienced by the filmmaker, who had to leave his film studies at Middlebury College in his senior year to care for his mother. Majid Al-Remaihi said: “Seven years ago, I began to feel an endless sea drive a wedge between myself and my mother as her struggle with Alzheimer’s continued to chip away at her sense of being. At 19, there was no specific way for me to reconcile with this continuous and incremental loss, of what it had robbed, and what it continues to rob of the futures and pasts that are suddenly irretrievable – but cinema, and this film, helped me piece together abstractions and unfinished conversations as a result of my need for gestures to mourn and heal. I am quite honoured to have this love letter to my mother receive this recognition as it marks a critical part of my life and honours the myriad contributions of mentors and collaborators that allowed for it to happen.”

This international qualification for an award such as the Oscars is a testament to Doha Film Institute’s commitment and mission to empower emerging filmmakers from the region. The documentary is represented by Wouter Jansen of Square Eyes for sales and distribution. ✤

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