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Awards season keeps ticking right along, but tonight’s Cinema Eye Honors promised at least a tiny respite from narrative-based filmmaking, as the New York City-set ceremony is all about honoring the best in the year’s documentary filmmaking.

Big winners included Kirsten Johnson’s “Cameraperson,” which picked up Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking, along with editing and cinematography wins. Right behind it was Ezra Edelman’s “O.J.: Made in America,” which earned Edelman a directing win, along with a production win for Edelman and Caroline Waterlow. Best TV offering went to “Making a Murderer.”

Nominations were lead by Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and “O.J.: Made in America,” which each pulled in five nominations apiece, though Johnson’s “Cameraperson” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea” aren’t far behind, with four nominations each. Both Peck and Rosi’s features ultimately walked away without an award.

The Cinema Tropical Awards, which honor the best in Latin American film production, have announced the nominees for their seventh annual ceremony. They feature 23 films from eight countries nominated in six different categories: Best Feature Film; Best Documentary Film; Best Director, Feature Film; Best Director, Documentary Film; Best First Film and Best U.S. Latino Film.

Read More: LatinoBuzz: Nominees Announced for the 6th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards

The winners will be announced at a special evening ceremony at The New York Times Company headquarters in New York City on Friday, January 13. The winning films will be showcased as part of the Cinema Tropical Festival at Museum of the Moving Image this winter.

The jury for the festival this year includes the following: Carlos Aguilar, film critic and journalist; Fábio Andrade, film critic and screenwriter; Ela Bittencourt, film critic and programmer; Eric Hynes, Associate Curator of Film, Museum of the Moving Image; Toby Lee,...

The nominees for the 10th annual Cinema Eye Honors have been announced, with “I Am Not Your Negro” and “Oj: Made in America” both receiving five each. They’re followed in short order by “Cameraperson” and “Fire at Sea,” which along with “Weiner” are all in contention for the top prize. A total of 37 features and five shorts will be in contention at the upcoming ceremony, which “Hoop Dreams” director Steve James will host from the Museum of the Moving Image on January 11. Here’s the full list of nominees:

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking

“Cameraperson” (Kirsten Johnson)

“Fire at Sea” (Gianfranco Rosi)

“I Am Not Your Negro” (Raoul Peck)

“Oj: Made in America” (Ezra Edelman)

“Weiner” (Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg)

Outstanding Achievement in Direction

Kirsten Johnson, “Cameraperson”

Gianfranco Rosi, “Fire at Sea”

Raoul Peck, “I Am Not Your Negro”

Robert Greene, “Kate Plays Christine”

Ezra Edelman, “Oj:...

The curtain fell on India’s biggest Film Festival, Jio Mami 18th Mumbai Film Festival with Star on Thursday, 27th October, 2016. The ceremony took place at Bal Gandharva Rangmandir, Bandra. World-renowned filmmakers, talent and Bollywood stars walked the red carpet to celebrate the end of Mumbai’s very own film festival’s latest edition.

Sonam Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Abhay Deol, Kabir Khan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi, Rahul Bose, Kunal Kapoor, Zoya Akhtar, Ayan Mukerji, Vishal Bharadwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Shakun Batra, Konkona Sensharma, Rajkumar Hirani, Richa Chadda, Neha Sharma and others walked the red carpet at the closing ceremony along with Jio Mami with Star Co-chairperson Kiran Rao, Festival Director Anupama Chopra. Shweta Tripathi and Vicky Kaushal hosted the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Nita M. Ambani, Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation & Co-Chair, Mami Board of Trustees said, “It has been an incredible week of cinema at the Jio Mami Mumbai Film Festival.

A total of 145 feature documentaries were submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for consideration for the 89th Academy Awards.

Out of those films the members of the Academy’s documentary branch will select a shortlist of 15 features that will be announced in December, and the five nominations will be announced on January 24.

Read More: Documentary, Now: Three Rock Stars Who Run the Fast-Changing Non-Fiction World

Among the titles included in the list are Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner “Weiner” by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, Raoul Peck’s Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner “I Am Not Your Negro,” the visually stunning “Voyage of Time: The Imax Experience” by Terrence Malik and Otto Bell’s “The Eagle Huntress.”

Read More: Oscars 2017: 10 Documentary Shorts Vie for Nominations

This year Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees’ film “Amy” about British singer Amy Winehouse...

Other winners included Ralitza Petrova’s Godless and The Narrow Path, directed by Satish Babusenan and Santosh Babusenan.

Davy Chou’s Diamond Island won the Golden Gateway Award in Mumbai Film Festival’s international competition, while Haobam Paban Kumar’ Lady Of The Lake scooped the same honour in India Gold.

Diamond Island, a co-production between Cambodia, France and three other countries, received its world premiere in Critics Week at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and premiered in Cambodia this week. Lady Of The Lake, a Manipuri-language drama about fishermen being driven from their homes, recently premiered at Busan.

Other winners in Mumbai’s international competition included Bulgarian filmmaker Ralitza Petrova’s Godless, which took the Silver Gateway Award, and Mexican director Natalia Almada’s Everything Else, which took the Jury Grand Prize. Special mentions went to Alba, directed by Ecuador’s Macarena Arias, and UK-Peruvian drama When Two Worlds Collide.

In the India...

Top brass at the 12th Zurich Film Festival have given the Golden Eye for international feature film to The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, the debut feature by Juho Kuosmanen.

The film, which previously won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize and is Finland’s Oscar submission, is based on the true story of a Finnish boxer who is more concerned with his new girlfriend than winning a championship bout.

The Golden Eye in Zurich comes with a $25,700 (25,000 Chf) cash prize.

Kuosmanen told Screen that awards are “always nice” and added that he was especially delighted by the audience reception.

“It feels like the film is communicating with different people with different backgrounds. The audience feedback has been very good [in Zurich] and for me it’s important that the film is understood and people are communicating with it.”

The jury, which comprised Lone Scherfig, David Farr, Sibel Kekilli and Graham Broadbent, also gave three...

Miguel Gomes [pictured] and Reha Erdem to head international competition and India Gold juries, respectively; fest also unveils line-up and Jia Zhangke award.

Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes (Arabian Nights) is heading the jury for the international competition at this year’s Mumbai Film Festival, while Turkish director Reha Erdem will preside over the jury for the India Gold section.

Gomes will be joined by filmmakers Tala Hadid and Anurag Kashyap, producer Christine Vachon and Hot Docs president Chris McDonald. Titles selected for the International Competition for first-time filmmakers include Israeli filmmaker Elite Zexer’s Sand Storm and Diamond Island, from French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (see full line-up below).

Erdem recently won the Special Orizzonti Jury Prize at Venice for Big Big World. He will be joined on the India Gold jury by composer Mychael Danna (Life Of Pi), Hong Kong director Yonfan (Peony Pavilion), Polish director Tomasz Wasilewski (United States Of Love) and critic Stephanie Zacharek.

The festival...

Many sports documentaries focus on the inspirational story of an individual or a team overcoming great odds to achieve greatness, but few examine one particular position on a team, especially one so misunderstood and controversial. The new documentary “Ice Guardians” journeys into the lives of those who perform undoubtedly the toughest job within the National Hockey League today: The enforcer, an unofficial role whose job it is to deter and respond to violent play by the opposition.

Read More: Review: Gripping And Historic Hockey Documentary ‘Red Army’

Few understand this position and even fewer appreciate what is involved in becoming one. Born out of self policing an inherently violent game, the role now faces the scrutiny of national newspapers, blogs, and TV news casts. Due to its violent nature, it has drawn opinions from both fans and critics alike. But what led to its spectacular rise? What purpose does it really serve?...

“We are what we pretend to be so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” That lucite pearl of wisdom, which appears in the introduction of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 novel “Mother Night” and then reverberates beneath the rest of its pages, is as much of a warning as it is an invitation. Many of the great filmmakers have dedicated their lives to sifting through the truth of Vonnegut’s words — or at least that of the principle expressed therein — using that sentiment as a starting point from which to dive into the bottomless void of the human psyche.

“Maria Full of Grace” director Joshua Marston, who has struggled to live up to the promise of that stirringly urgent debut, is not one of the great filmmakers. Identity is a construct, relationships are a performance and love is a fiction that only endures for as long as two people...

When Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami died earlier this year, the outpouring of grief was a spectacle unmatched by any other from the film world in recent memory. Where the deaths of Jacques Rivette and Michael Cimino provoked shock and pain within the communities of their admirers, Kiarostami’s passing was of a different scale: it revealed the formative influence he exercised over the minds of a great many cinephiles, and suggested the reason that nobody seemed to be speaking about him was because there was little left to be said.

His funeral in Tehran was attended by a huge crowd of grievers, but the bustling scene paled in comparison to the sheer unanimity and ubiquity of the film community’s remorse. Like Chaplin, one of his favorite filmmakers, Kiarostami seemed to be liked by everyone.In what is plausibly Kiarostami’s last completed film, the nine-minute Cuban short “Passenger,” which...

Every week, a bevy of new releases (independent or otherwise), open in theaters. That’s why we created the Weekly Film Guide, filled with basic plot, personnel and cinema information for all of this week’s fresh offerings.

For August, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.

See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for August 2016

Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, August 19. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.

Wide

Ben-Hur

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Cast: Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Nazanin Boniadi, Rodrigo Santoro, Toby Kebbell

Synopsis: The epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title,...

In 2010, when New Orleans Saint defensive star Steve Gleason first learned of his Als diagnosi, his wife Michel was pregnant. Instinctively, he picked up a camera and started talking to his yet-to-be-born son — and so began the documentation of a man’s determination to tackle his disease head-on. In 2012, Gleason brought aboard local filmmaker David Lee and Ty Minton-Small, a longtime friend, who embedded themselves in the Gleasons’ home and captured the ex-football player as he faced rapidly deteriorating physical abilities, spent time with his son River and reconciled with his father.

Read More: ‘Voyage of Time’ Trailer: Terrence Malick’s Ambitious IMAX Documentary Looks Stunning

By the time director Clay Tweel (“Finders Keepers”) started working on the film in March of 2015, over 1,200 hours of footage had been shot. Tweel’s job: Craft it into a story.

“It was a daunting task,” Tweel recently told IndieWire. Yet, ten months after starting the edit,...

On July 28, 2006, Alan García was sworn in to office for his second term as the President of Peru, 16 years since his first stint ended with social unrest and severe hyperinflation. In 2007, he delivered a nationally televised address in which he invited (or pleaded with) American entrepreneurs to invest in Peru and harvest the country’s finite natural resources. “We don’t have any political conflicts!” he boasted in a proto-Trumpian moment of goading the gods.

And then, on June 5, 2009, García ordered Peruvian police and military personnel to forcibly prevent protestors from blocking the major road that is used for accessing the country’s fertile Bagua region. Dozens of indigenous people and government troops were killed in the ensuing riot, and many more would die in the violence that resulted from that initial clash. No political conflicts, indeed.

All of this — and much more — is captured in Heidi Brandenburg and Matthew...

After winning the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Debut Feature at Sundance this year, When Two Worlds Collide, the directorial debut of Heidi Brandenburg and Matthew Orzel, will arrive this month.

The doc concerns Amazonian land being fought over by President Alan Garcia and Alberto Pizango, the indigenous leader who wants to stop Garcia from extracting oils, minerals, and gas from the currently-untouched Amazonian land. As Garcia ignores the pleas of the indigenous people, a war erupts that shakes the Peruvian landscape.

Combining stock footage with their own, Orzel and Brandenburg look to create a rousing, complex, thought-provoking piece of cinema. See the trailer, along with a poster, below.

In this tense and immersive tour de force, audiences are taken directly into the line of fire between powerful, opposing Peruvian leaders who will stop at nothing to keep their respective goals intact. On the one side is President Alan Garcia,...

"This must end." First Run Features has debuted an official trailer for a powerful environmental activism documentary called When Two Worlds Collide, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and won a Special Jury Prize for Best Debut Feature. The doc is about the conflict between the Peruvian government and Peruvian activists trying to save the Amazon rainforest in Peru. The jury at Sundance gave the film an award stating that "this film impresses us because of the tenacity of the filmmakers in staying with the story of many years. This film was beautiful, raw and had incredible tension." From the trailer, you can get a glimpse at some of the remarkable footage they have of the violent fight between the politicians and the people. This looks like investigative doc filmmaking at its finest, and most powerful. Watch below. Here's the trailer (+ poster) for Brandenburg & Orzel's doc When Two Worlds Collide,...

The “Everything Wrong With” team is back with another one of their movie-sin-counting videos, and this time they’re sticking it to “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” with a 21-minute (!!) look at, well, everything wrong with Zack Snyder’s superhero mash-up. With DC’s latest entry into their Dceu, “Suicide Squad,” hitting theaters today amidst already big box office returns and increasingly poor critical reception, the timing couldn’t be better for DC’s arguably biggest disappointment yet.

The video comes out blazing, upbraiding the film’s opening minutes for its use of non-story-enhancing narration (fair), Snyder’s insistence on showing his audience the death of the Wayne parents yet again (a personal pet peeve) and the “over-goddamn-use-of-goddamn-slow-motion.” And that’s just the first minute.

Read More: ‘Batman v Superman’ Ultimate Edition Review Roundup: R-Rated Extended Cut an Improvement Over the Theatrical Cut

Things don’t get much better from there,...

After premiering earlier this year at the Slamdance Film Festival, Brian Golden Davis’ quirky documentary “The Million Dollar Duck” is getting ready for its digital and VOD release on August 9, and IndieWire has an exclusive clip that brings viewers into this deeply bizarre world of Duck lovers.

Read More: Animal Planet and Lionsgate Team Up for ‘Million Dollar Duck’ Acquisition

The documentary explores the eccentric world of the Federal Duck Stamp Contest, which is the only juried art competition run by the U.S. government. The Duck Stamp is among the most successful conservation tools ever created, and it has spawned an American subculture brimming with talent, ego, art, controversy and big money. The movie follows six wildlife artists striving to win what is also referred to as “the Olympics of wildlife art.”

In the exclusive clip below, the viewer is introduced to two of the competition’s biggest rivals.

Most Americans are probably familiar with the threats the Amazon region faces against countries and businesses looking to extract resources, but few probably understand just how greatly the region is embattled in conflict over this issue. That’s all about to change with the upcoming documentary “When Two Worlds Collide,” which plunges viewers straight into the middle of an escalating battle between those who want to use the Amazon for its resources and those who want to protect it.

Read More: Reality Checks: This Year’s Sundance Showed How the Documentary Film World is Changing

Directed by newcomers Heidi Brandenburg Sierralta & Mathew Orzel, “When Two Worlds Collide” centers around two opposing Peruvian leaders who want desperately to keep their respective goals intact. President Alan Garcia wants his country to enter the world stage, and he sees the extraction of oil, minerals, and gas from untouched Amazonian land as a major way in doing so.

August can often be thought of as a January-esque dumping ground for Hollywood, and that notion is certainly refuted when looking at this month’s releases. With one of the summer’s best studio offerings, a few more more promising ones, and some of our festival favorites from the last year (and even further back), there is no shortage of promising options. We should also note that Multiple Maniacs, Elevator to the Gallows, and Howards End are all getting substantial theatrical re-releases throughout the month, so seek those restorations if they are coming near you.

Matinees to See: Neither Heaven Nor Earth (8/5), Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny (8/5), The Tenth Man (8/5), The Lost Arcade (8/12), Anthropoid (8/12), My King (8/12), Florence Foster Jenkins (8/12), Disorder (8/12), When Two Worlds Collide (8/17), Imperium (8/19), A Tale of Love and Darkness (8/19), The People vs. Fritz Bauer (8/19), Spa Night (8/19), War Dogs (8/19), A Complete Unknown (8/26), Don’t Breathe (8/26), Hands of Stone (8/26), and...

Chinese director Liu Jie’s De Lan won best film at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival, while Vito Palmieri’s See You In Texas won the grand jury prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

Liu’s rural tale revolves around a loan officer who travels to a remote village and strikes up a complicated relationship with a Tibetan woman. The director is currently working on Hide And Seek, a Chinese adaptation of a Korean thriller, co-financed by Village Roadshow Pictures Asia.

Palmieri’s See You In Texas tells the story of a young Italian woman who has to make difficult decisions when she is offered an opportunity to perfect her horse-riding skills on a ranch in Texas.

Among other winners, Finnish filmmaker Antti Jokinen picked up best director for Flowers Of Evil; Liu Ye won best actor for his performance in Cao Baoping’s Cock And Bull; and Naomi Fujiyama took best actress...

Werner Herzog’s thriller Salt And Fire will have its world premiere at the festival.

Longman Leung and Sunny Luk’s Cold War 2 [pictured], the sequel to Edko Films’ hit 2012 action thriller, will open this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival (June 11-19).

Meanwhile, Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire, Bruce Beresford’s Mr Church and Cao Baoping’s Coke And Bull are among the films selected for the Golden Goblet Awards (see full list below).

As previously announced the competition jury is headed by Emir Kusturica and also includes Atom Egoyan, Daniele Luchetti, African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu), Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden (Tharlo), Hong Kong actress Karena Lam and Chinese writer Yan Geling.

Japanese filmmaker Kazuo Hara will oversee a separate jury for documentaries, while Swiss animation director George Schwizgebel heads the jury for animated films.

Siff also unveiled nominations in six categories for the Asian New Talent Awards, which has a jury...

Exclusive: Andrew Herwitz has licensed all Us rights excluding Svod on the eco activism documentary to First Run Features

The Sundance World Cinema Documentary special jury prize-winner from Heidi Brandenburg and Matthew Orzel chronicles environmentalists in contemporary Peru.

The film charts the showdown between activists and president Alan Garcia, whose efforts to extract oil and minerals from untouched Amazonian land are met with fierce resistance.

First Run Features plans an August theatrical launch at New York’s Film Forum followed by nationwide expansion.

When Two Worlds Collide will receive its international premiere next week at Hot Docs in Toronto.

Herwitz brokered the deal for the film-makers with Marc Mauceri on behalf of the distributor.

Exclusive: Andrew Herwitz heads to the Toronto festival this week with sales rights on Aida’s Secret and The Peacekeeper.

Aida’s Secret (pictured) from Shaul and Alon Schwarz is set to receive its world premiere at Hot Docs and recounts the story of their uncle’s search for the family from which he was separated at the age of three.

The film draws on in-depth research, archival material, interviews and verité footage. The Film Sales Company holds worldwide rights excluding German-speaking territories, French TV, and Israel.

Herwitz represents worldwide rights to James Demo’s The Peacekeeper, which centres on Padraig O’Malley, who has brokered peace in war-torn regions for 30 years but whose personal life is full of turmoil.

Demo follows O’Malley over the course of five years as he goes from war zone to war zone, only to return to an empty apartment and a past scarred by addiction.

The two new...

Nate Parker's racial drama "The Birth of a Nation" took both the top honors of the grand jury prize and the audience award at this year's Sundance Film Festival which held its ceremony tonight.

The film, a drama about the life of Nat Turner and the slave rebellion he led in antebellum Virginia, made headlines several days ago when it was acquired by Fox Searchlight for a record-shattering $17.5 million.

It also marks the fourth year in a row where one film has taken the top two prizes in U.S. dramatic competition following 2013's "Fruitvale Station," 2014's "Whiplash" and last year's "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl". The U.S. documentary grand jury prize was awarded to "Weiner," a behind-the-scenes portrayal of disgraced politician Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaign.

In the World Cinema dramatic competition the grand jury prize went to Elite Ziker's "Sand Storm" which deals with...

Nate Parker’s directorial debut claimed the Us Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and corresponding audience award at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, capping off a barnstorming week for the slave revolt drama.

Last week The Birth Of A Nation sparked a bidding frenzy that resulted in the biggest on-site deal in the festival’s history as Fox Searchlight paid $17.5m for worldwide rights.

Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s film about a rapping Afghan teenager opposed to arranged marriage, earned similar double honours as it won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and audience awards.

The Us Grand Jury Prize: Documentary award went to Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner, while the audience voted for Brian Oakes’ Jim: The James Foley Story.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic went to Elite Zexer’s Sand Story and the audience choice was Carlos del Castillo’s Between Land And Sea.

In other winners:...

Heidi Brandenburg & Mathew Orzel’s "When Two Worlds Collide" (Isa: Film Sales Company) is the story of an indigenous Peruvian man and his people, and of the fate of one of our planet’s most valuable natural resources – the Amazon rain forest. The film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is the first-ever Peruvian recipient of a grant from the Institute.

It received a post-production grant from the Doha Film Institute following the Dubai International Film Festival in the fall of 2015. The grants program is dedicated to supporting new cinematic talent, with a focus on first- and second-time filmmakers. And, for the first time in its 11 year history, filmmakers from Chile, Peru and Spain received funding from the program. Twenty-four of the projects are from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, while six are from the rest of the world.

"Rey" (King) by Niles Atallah (Chile)

In 1860, a French lawyer dreamed of becoming the King of Patagonia – and he did just that. Or so it seemed.

As in several previous sessions of the grants program, powerful projects from Argentina secured funding. Milagros Mumenthaler’s Swiss/Argentinian film "The Idea of a Lake" is about a photographer who undergoes a personal exploration of her past and the absence of her father while creating a book of her work, while Maximiliano Schonfeld’s "The Black Frost" is a drama set on a plantation where a pernicious black frost threatens to devastate the countryside until a mysterious woman arrives.

The 30 projects, comprising 16 feature-length narrative films, 10 feature documentaries and 4 short films –received funding for development, production or post-production.

The fund is primarily for first and second-time filmmakers. Post-production funding is available to established filmmakers from the Mena region.

For more information about eligibility and submissions, please visit

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/grants/guidelines

A full directory of past grant recipients is available to view at

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/projects/grants...

Exclusive: Andrew Herwitz has picked up four world premieres for his Sundance slate and added a fifth title from Main Street neighbour Slamdance.

The line-up includes Will Allen’s Us Documentary Competition entry Holy Hell (pictured), about a California cult that features footage shot by the director over the course of years while serving as the group’s videographer. Holy Hell premieres on January 25.

How To Tell You’re A Douchebag comes from first-time filmmaker Tahir Jetter about a relationship blogger in Brooklyn who meets his match. The Next entry’s world premiere is set for January 25.

Us Dramatic Competition entry Spa Night by Andrew Ahn premieres on January 24 and centres on a Koreatown family in Los Angeles.

Heidi Brandenburg and Matthew Orzel’s When Two Worlds Collide premieres in World Cinema Documentary Competition on January 22.

The story centres on Peruvian president Alan Garcia’s attempts to extract oil and minerals from untouched Amazonian land and his...

The Doha Film Institute has announced the recipients of the Fall 2015 session of its grants program following the Dubai International Film Festival, where 15 of the Institute’s previous grantees, 4 of which are world premieres, were showcased. Thirty projects from 19 countries – comprising 16 feature-length narrative films, 10 feature documentaries and 4 short films – will receive funding for development, production or post-production.

The Fall session marks the 11th session of the grants program, which is dedicated to supporting new cinematic talent, with a focus on first- and second-time filmmakers.

Twenty-four of the projects are from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, while 6 are from the rest of the world. For the first time, filmmakers from Chile, Peru and Spain will receive funding from the program.

Stories of displacement, physical or spiritual journeys, tales of family life, the power of nature and the importance of protecting the environment are highlighted in the selections this Fall.

Four projects from Qatar-based filmmakers were awarded grants – Hafiz Ali Abdullah’s "The Search for the Star Pearl," about a young pearl diver from Doha who discovers a map to the most valuable gem on Earth, and sets sail with three teenage friends in search of it; Hamida Al Kawari’s "To the Ends of the Earth" – the first Qatari feature documentary to receive a grant from the Institute – which follows a Qatari woman on an environmental expedition to Antarctica in search of hope; A.J. Al Thani’s "Kashta," a family drama about a father who takes his sons out into the desert to teach them about hunting and survival; and Hend Fakhroo’s "The Waiting Room," about an Arab and a Western family who find themselves sharing a hospital room.

Among the 30 projects selected for funding, 5 are from Morocco – Fyzal Boulifa’s "Pagan Magic," the story of a poor youngster working as a maid for a middle-class family; second-time grantee Uda Benyamina’s "Bastard," about a 15-year-old girl who lives with her mother in a rough Parisian suburb; Yakout Elhababi’s "Behind the Doors," which looks at family life and childhood set high in the Rif mountains of Morocco; Hind Bensari’s "Weight Throwers," a documentary look at the struggles of two young athletes as they train for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro; and "Behind The Wall," by Karima Zoubir, a short film set in a Casablanca slum.

Also featuring strongly are three animation projects – established filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour’s "Miss Camel," the story of a teenage Saudi camel who challenges the deep-rooted restrictions of her culture by travelling across the kingdom to compete in the Miss Camel beauty pageant in Doha; Mortada Gzar’s "Language," about a blind man on the streets of Baghdad who wakes up as a giant and reads the devastation of the city by touch; and Hafiz Ali Abdullah’s "The Search for the Star Pearl."

As in several previous sessions of the grants program, powerful projects from Argentina have also secured funding. Milagros Mumenthaler’s Swiss/Argentinian film "The Idea of a Lake" is about a photographer who undergoes a personal exploration of her past and the absence of her father while creating a book of her work, while Maximiliano Schonfeld’s "The Black Frost" is a drama set on a plantation where a pernicious black frost threatens to devastate the countryside until a mysterious woman arrives.

Continuing the environmental theme, Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel’s "When Two Worlds Collide" is the story of an indigenous Peruvian man and his people, and of the fate of one of our planet’s most valuable natural resources – the Amazon rainforest. The film, which has its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, is the first-ever Peruvian recipient of a grant from the Institute.

Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, said: “Our Fall grantees cover a broad range of subjects and represent some powerful new voices in cinema, especially from Qatar and North Africa with several projects supported from Morocco and Algeria.”

“Animated films are very popular in our region so it is very encouraging to see an acclaimed filmmaker like Haifaa Al Mansour turn her skills to this important genre; we support two other animated projects in this grants cycle as well.”

“Our grantees represent the core of the Doha Film Institute’s mandate to support emerging filmmakers and contribute to the development of the regional film industry. We have supported more than 255 films since the inception of the grants program and we continue to seek out projects with a strong directorial vision that are challenging, creative and thought-provoking. Our new round of grantees is no exception and I am delighted to welcome this outstanding crop of projects to our growing community of grantee alumni.”

Submissions for the next funding round open January 6 and close January 19, 2016. Funding is available to projects by filmmakers from around the world, with an emphasis on support for filmmakers from the Mena region. Certain categories of funding reserved for Mena and Qatari filmmakers.

The fund is primarily for first and second-time filmmakers. Post-production funding is available to established filmmakers from the Mena region.

For more information about eligibility and submissions, please visit

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/grants/guidelines

A full directory of past grant recipients is available to view at

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/projects/grants

The Doha Film Institute Grants Program funding recipients for the Fall 2015 session are:

Feature Narrative / Development

"Death Street" by Mohanad Hayal (Iraq)

Tariq, the sniper of Haifa Street in Baghdad, kills Ahmed on his wedding day. While Tariq prevents anyone from approaching the corpse in the street, an intimate and telling drama unfolds.

"Miss Camel" by Haifaa Al Mansour (Saudia Arabia)

A teenage Saudi camel challenges the deep-rooted restrictions of her culture by traveling across the kingdom to compete in the Miss Camel beauty pageant in Doha.

"Pagan Magic" by Fyzal Boulifa (Morocco, France)

A young, poor and uneducated girl works as a maid for a middle-class family in contemporary Morocco. Her use of pagan rites to confront her entrapment and make sense of her world ultimately corrupt her.

"The Search for the Star Pearl" by Hafiz Ali Abdullah (Qatar)

Ali, a 17-year-old pearl diver from Doha, discovers a map to the Star Pearl of Abu Derya, the most valuable gem on Earth, and sets sail with three teenaged friends in search of the pearl. Along the way, they face mythological beasts that challenge their skills and friendship.

Feature Narrative / Production

"Cactus Flower" by Hala Elkoussy (Egypt)

A flood leaves three Cairenes homeless. As they journey across the city in search of shelter, they depend upon one another to survive and keep their dreams alive.

"Poisonous Roses" by Fawzi Saleh (Egypt)

The world has left nothing to Taheya apart from her brother Saqr. When he disappears, Taheya pursues him in desperation.

"The Return" by Meyar Al-Roumi (Syria, France)

A love story blossoms between Taysir and Lina, exiles from Syria, while they drive across their homeland to bury Taysir’s brother, a victim of the armed conflict.

"Till the Swallows Return" by Karim Moussaoui (Algeria, France)

This is the story of three characters who are a product of the conflicted Algeria of the 2000s. Their ideals shattered and their moral strength drained, each now faces a difficult life choice.

Feature Narrative / Post-production

"Bastard" by Uda Benyamina (Morocco, France)

Fifteen-year-old Dounia lives with her mother in a rough Parisian suburb, where she has been saddled with the nickname “bastard”.

"The Black Frost" by Maximiliano Schonfeld (Argentina)

Soon after a mysterious woman arrives on a plantation, a pernicious black frost ceases to devastate the countryside. Hope emerges. Might she might be a saviour?

"Blue Bicycle" by Ümit Köreken (Turkey)

Young Ali saves up all the money he can working at a tyre repair shop to buy a coveted blue bicycle. Meanwhile, at school, his love for his schoolmate Elif leads him to defend her dismissal as school president. A story of childish love, dreams and resistance.

"The Dark Wind" by Hussein Hassan (Iraq)

Radical Islamists attack a village in Iraq where two young Yazidis are preparing for their marriage. At that moment, their lives become a nightmare.

"The Idea of a Lake" (note: previously titled Air Pocket) by Milagros Mumenthaler (Switzerland, Argentina)

Inés, a photographer, is creating a book of her work. Gradually, the process becomes a personal exploration of her past and the absence of her father, who was disappeared during the military dictatorship in Argentina.

"The Mimosas" by Oliver Laxe (Spain, Morocco, France)

In the Atlas Mountains in the past, a caravan searches for the path to take a Sufi master home to die. Among the party is Ahmed, a rascal who eventually becomes inspired to lead the caravan to its destination. Along the way, he is assisted by Shakib, a man sent from contemporary Morocco to guide Ahmed on his journey.

"Rey" (King) by Niles Atallah (Chile)

In 1860, a French lawyer dreamed of becoming the King of Patagonia – and he did just that. Or so it seemed.

"Suspension" by Ala Eddine Slim (Tunisia)

N is a candidate for an illegal crossing of the Mediterranean from Tunisia. A supernatural voyage, during which N will confront Nature and himself, begins.

Feature Documentary / Development

"Agnus Dei" by Karim Sayad (Algeria, Switzerland)

In Algeria, Ali and his sheep, bought for slaughter on Eid Al-Adha, are getting ready for the fight. Once the bets are in, the referee invites the owners into the ring…

"Behind the Doors" by Yakout Elhababi (Morocco)

High in the Rif mountains of Morocco, the people survive by growing kif. Beneath the shadow of the ambiguous legality of the crop, ‘Behind the Doors’ tells the story of a family through its children and their mirroring games.

"The Great Family" by Eliane Raheb (Lebanon)

In 1976, at the age of four, Marlene was put up for adoption in Lebanon and raised in France. In delving into her past, she discovers she is a survivor of the massacre at the Tal Al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp, and a family of survivors grows around her.

Feature Documentary / Production

"The Colonel’s Stray Dogs" by Khalid Shamis (Libya, South Africa)

While director Khalid Shamis watched television in his suburban London home, his father was plotting the overthrow of Muammar Gadaffi in his study. When the regime fell, Shamis sought answers about Libya under Gadaffi and his father’s role in its failed liberation.

"Ibrahim" by Lina Alabed (Jordan)

‘Ibrahim’ uncovers the long journey of the director’s father as a young man, when he was a secret member of Abu Nidal, a militant Palestinian revolutionary organisation.

"Searching for Janitou" by Mohamed El Amine hattou (Algeria)

A journey to unravel love in past and contemporary Algeria by exploring the unique phenomenon of a Bollywood film that swept the country in the 1980s.

"To the Ends of the Earth" by Hamida Al Kawari ( Qatar)

A Qatari woman travels on an environmental expedition to Antarctica in search of hope, before returning to the Gulf and finding unity and inspiration for positive change.

"Weight Throwers" by Hind Bensari (Morocco)

‘Weight Thowers’ follows the struggles of Azzedine and Youssef, disabled members of Morocco’s unemployed and disillusioned young generation, as they struggle to train for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Feature Documentary / Post-production

"Tadmor" by Lokman Slim, Monika Borgmann (Lebanon)

A group of Lebanese men re-enact the ordeals they experienced as detainees in Syria’s notorious Tadmor prison. An ode to the human will to survive.

"When Two Worlds Collide" by Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel (Peru)

A story of a man and a people, and of the fate of one of our planet’s most valuable natural resources – the Amazon rainforest.

Short Narrative / Production

"Behind the Wall" by Karima Zoubir (Morocco)

Nadia, a little girl, lives in a Casablanca slum that is surrounded by a wall. One day, the municipality begins to paint the wall – but why this sudden interest?

"Kashta" by A.J. Al Thani (Qatar)

A father takes his two sons out to the desert to learn about hunting and survival, but the results are not quite what he was expecting.

"Language" by Mortada Gzar (Iraq)

An old blind man walks throught the streets of Baghdad, then falls asleep while reading a book in Braille. When he wakes up, he finds he has become a giant and reads the devastation of the city by touch.

"The Waiting Room" by Hind Fakhroo (Qatar)

An Arab family and a Western family find themselves sharing a hospital room; the only thing that separates them is a curtain.

Wadjda director among 30 awarded grants in the Doha Film Institute’s latest round of funding.Scroll down for the full list of projects

Haifaa Al Mansour, the director of 2012 Bafta-nominated Wadjda, has received a grant for her first animated feature project Miss Camel (in development) as part of the Doha Film Institute’s Fall 2015 round of funding.

The film will follow a teenage camel in Saudi Arabia which travels across the country to compete in a beauty pageant.

In total, 30 projects have received grants, including 16 feature films, three of which are animations, and 10 documentaries.

Of the projects selected, 24 are from the Mena region, while for the first time filmmakers from Chile, Peru and Spain will all receive funding.

Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, said: “Animated films are very popular in our region so it is very encouraging to see an acclaimed filmmaker like Haifaa Al Mansour turn her skills to this important genre; we...