Doha Film Institute (DFI): Qumra 2026 to move online

Doha Film Institute

Due to recent developments in the region, Doha Film Institute (DFI) has made the decision to move this year’s edition of Qumra online for the safety and wellbeing of guests, projects and teams. This will allow the programme to ensure that 49 global projects still benefit from the wealth of networking and mentorship that have always been offered under the programme, virtually between 27 March – 8 April 2026.

And in the first and longest-running initiative of its kind for this region, Qumra nurtures emerging first and second-time filmmakers through their projects — offering them tailored mentorship, industry access and creative development at all stages of filmmaking.

The 2026 cohort reflects a dynamic spectrum of storytelling, from personal meditations to audacious explorations of history and myth and identity, affirming Qumra as an important platform for new cinematic voices emerging from Qatar, the region and beyond.

Ranging from feature narratives to webseries and shorts, the selected projects show cinema’s power to meet at the intersection of the personal and political, local and universal, real and imagined. Of the 49 projects (27 features, 9 series and 13 shorts), 47 are supported through the Institute’s Grants Programme and five through DFI’s Qatari Film Fund. 43 projects from Middle East and North Africa Region and 6 International. 15 projects by Qatar based filmmakers, including 10 by Qatari nationals, and 17 projects developed through DFI training programmes.