City Doha Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Michael Winterbottom has devoted much of his filmmaking career to revisiting real-life events through works blurring the boundaries between documentary and drama to various degrees.  

The Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent and project incubator event returned as a 100% in-person event last week, bringing participants together face-to-face in Doha for the first time since it was forced online in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

UK director Lynne Ramsay enjoyed international recognition early on in her career after short films Small Deaths and Gasman were invited to the Cannes and won the Jury Prize in its short film competition in 1996 and 1998 respectively.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French-Moroccan director Sofia Alaoui made a splash at Sundance with her sci-fi thriller “Animalia,” which used genre to explore dark sides of Moroccan society. The filmmaker is now employing similar tropes in the early stages on a TV series titled “Let the Earth Burn.” “Animalia,” winner of the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision within Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, is about a pregnant young woman from a rural Berber background who winds up emancipating herself as aliens land in Morocco. “Let the Earth Burn,” unveiled during the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra Arab film and TV series projects incubator this week, takes its cue from real abductions and slayings in remote areas of Morocco of kids known as “Zouhri” whom the kidnappers believe have supernatural powers.

Jacqueline West is one of Hollywood’s most respected costume designers with four Oscar nominations for Philip Kaufmann’s Quills, David Fincher’s The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One.

Oscar-winning UK producer David Parfitt shared insights from the highs and lows of his 35-year producing career at a masterclass for the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator over the weekend.

Oscar-winning screenwriter, playwright and film director Christopher Hampton was on feisty form in a masterclass in Qatar earlier this week as part of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator event (March 10-16).

UK director Michael Winterbottom has suggested that his 2022 Gaza documentary Eleven Days In May had a tougher time securing a UK broadcast partner following an article in the London-based Jewish Chronicle linking his Palestinian co-director to Hamas.

Manchester Airport says it is set for a strong summer as passenger numbers return to near pre-pandemic levels and holidaymakers increasingly look to far flung destinations.

Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton is in talks to write a screenplay with French director Anne Fontaine about iconic feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nelson Algren’s transatlantic affair.

Oscar and BAFTA-winning film producer David Parfitt is hoping to reunite with French producer Philippe Carcassonne following their successful collaboration on Florian Zeller’s Oscar-nominated drama The Father. 

UK director Lynne Ramsay has given updates on a raft of projects she has on the boil, including a fresh collaboration with Joaquin Phoenix, on the fringes of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra talent incubator this weekend.

Three months ago, Doha’s new Downtown Msheireb district was the throbbing heart of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as one of its main fan zones.

Sundance prize winner Sofia Alaoui, Yemeni-Scottish Oscar-nominee Sara Ishaq and Emmy-feted Egyptian cinematographer Muhammad Hamdy will be among filmmakers presenting projects at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event, unfolding in Qatar March 10-15.

Playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton, producer David Parfitt, Dune costume designer Jacqueline West and directors Lynne Ramsay and Michael Winterbottom are to set attend the Qatari Doha Film Institute’s ninth talent incubator event Qumra in March.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Doha Film Institute has recruited an impressive mix of film directors and talents comprising Christopher Hampton, David Parfitt, Jacqueline West, Lynne Ramsay, and Michael Winterbottom who will hold master classes and act as mentors during its upcoming Qumra Arab industry incubator. The event, which is back in person after a two-year hiatus, will run physically March 10-15 in the Qatari capital of Doha, followed by an online program March 19-21. Qumra, which means “camera” in Arabic, blends together a creative workshop, co-production market, and festival elements. The event, now at its ninth edition, was established by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) to help foster first and second works, mostly by Arab directors and to create curated networking opportunities between the Arab and international film communities.

Manchester United fans have reacted positively to a cryptic tweet from a Qatari journalist as the Emir of Qatar continues to be linked with a bid for the club.

A journalist covering the FIFA World Cup died “suddenly” in recent days, a Qatar newspaper has reported, with the announcement on Saturday following by a day reports of the death of U.S. journalist Grant Wahl.

England’s emphatic 3-0 victory over local rival Wales in the Qatar World Cup was seen by a peak UK audience of 18.7M.

The U.S. beat Iran 1-0 in a gutsy must-win game at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Tuesday, helping the team qualify for the second round of the tournament where it will face The Netherlands in a knockout-stage game this weekend.Christian Pulisic made the difference today with a charging goal in the 38th minute of a dominant first half for the Americans at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha. It was the 22nd U.S. goal for the Chelsea striker, though he was injured during the play and was subbed out at halftime.

A TV reporter, who was robbed whilst live on air reporting on the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, says she has been left stunned by the police response to her reporting the incident. Dominique Metzger says officials asked her what punishment she thought would be suitable for the criminal who stole from her handbag.

The possibility of protest and non-protests are looming large over the England vs Iran World Cup match this afternoon (5 a.m. PST).

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar gets underway Sunday with an official opening ceremony leading into the first game, host Qatar vs. Ecuador, launching the monthlong tournament showcasing the world’s most popular sport.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has hit back at criticism of Qatar’s human rights record in an extraordinary press conference in Doha, the day before the World Cup kicks off in the Middle East. 

A Scots man locked up in Iraq for the past two months will have to wait for his homecoming after his flight home was delayed.

Days out from the start of FIFA’s soccer World Cup in Qatar, things are taking a turn for the surreal.

Qatar World Cup organizers have issued an apology to Danish broadcaster TV2 after journalists were “mistakenly interrupted” during a live broadcast from a Doha street where Qatari officials threatened to break their camera. 

Glastonbury Festival‘s fire-breathing Arcadia spider for celebrations during the football tournament this autumn.Live music performances including DJ sets will run in situ with the spider, which has become a firm fixture for electronic music at Glastonbury over the last decade.According to the Daily Mail, organisers of this year’s World Cup in Qatar have rented the 50-tonne, fire-breathing metal structure that Glastonbury itself hires annually from the Bristol-based Arcadia company for the tournament. No further details, however, on when it will be in place nor who is playing live inside the spider have been shared.The publication has reported further that a “well-placed source” suggested that the Arcadia spider may be one of the few zones in which alcohol is permitted to be drunk including at the stadiums and in the ‘Fan Zone’.

Naman Ramachandran BAFTA and Digital Cinema Media (DCM) have partnered on a cinema campaign, which premieres Aug. 19 across the U.K., to inspire the next generation of creative talent by showcasing the diverse range of skills and knowledge that goes into making award-winning films, games and television.

It may be Maša Marković’s first year as head of industry at the Sarajevo Film Festival, but for the long-time festival staffer, it’s business as usual.