Eight Films Supported by Doha Film Institute Selected for 75th Berlin International Film Festival

Doha Film Institute continues to makes impact globally with eight films supported through its Grants programme selected to the 75th edition of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) to be held from February 13 to 23. The films have been chosen to the Competition section as well as Critics’ Week, Forum Expanded and Generation Kplus, as well as in Panorama.

Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Film Institute, said: “The selection of these films at the Berlin Film Festival is a testament to the incredible talent and creativity of young filmmakers from across the world, that stand out for their diversity of themes and their innovative approach to storytelling. It reflects our commitment to supporting filmmakers who are pushing boundaries and telling compelling stories that resonate globally. At Doha Film Institute, we believe in the power of cinema to bridge cultures and inspire change, and this achievement reaffirms our mission to elevate voices that deserve to be heard.”

The DFI-supported films at Berlinale 2025 include Yunan (Palestine, Germany, Canada, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Ameer Fakher Eldin screens in the Competition section, the centrepiece of the festival that presents about 20 selections annually. The film is about Munir, a renowned Arab author exiled in Germany, who is burdened by psychological torment and plagued by hauntingly vivid dreams. Desperate and despondent, he embarks on a journey to a remote island, where he encounters Valeska, a wise elderly woman, and her steadfast son, Karl. Their presence unexpectedly radiates hope and redemption.

Ancestral Visions of the Future (Lesotho, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese screens in the Berlinale Special segment, is a poetic allegory of the filmmaker’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery, Mosese crafts a haunting reflection on dislocation and belonging.

Screening in the Perspectives programme is Mohamed Rashad’s The Settlement (Egypt, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) follows Hossam who gives up his thuggish lifestyle to be able to provide for his sick mother and brother Maro after the death of his father. Hossam goes to work at the same factory as his father and begins to doubt whether his death was accidental. 

Featuring in the Forum Expanded is My Armenian Phantoms (Armenia, France, Qatar) by Tamara Stepanyan, is a tribute to the director’s father, Vigen Stepanyan, who was a beloved theatre and film actor in Armenia.

Screening in Generation Kplus, a competition programme that screens state-of-the-art international cinema, is The Botanist (China, Qatar) by Jing Yi, about a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin, in the valley villages of the northern border of Xinjiang, who is obsessed with plants. Through his fascination with the plant world, he recounts memories of his nomadic family in contemporary times. 

The two films in the Panorama section include: Yalla Parkour! (Palestine, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Areeb Zuaiter is about Ahmed, who aspires to become an international Parkour champion despite the blockade that troubles Gaza and Khartoum (Sudan, UK, Germany, Qatar) by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Phil Cox, in which four Sudanese filmmakers mix observational documentary and innovative graphics, archives and animation to capture the lives of four real characters, all living and surviving in the war-torn metropolis of Khartoum.

Selected to the Critics’ Week is East of Noon (Egypt, Netherlands, Qatar) by Hala Elkoussi is a satire on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its inherent vulnerability to youth’s unchained vision of a better world.