DFI Announces Line-up of Ajyal Youth Film Festival Competition

Doha, November 09 (QNA) - Doha Film Institute (DFI) has announced the competition line-up for the third edition of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival, comprising feature films from 20 countries as well as a series of short film programs that are set to be screened from November 29 to December 5. The jury will be made up of more than 500 young people, aged 8-21, who will watch a program of films under three competitive sections - Mohaq, Hilal, and Bader - followed by discussions and events including panels, workshops and Q and A sessions with filmmakers. In a press conference held Monday to unveil details of the festival, DFI CEO and Ajyal Director Fatima Al Rumaihi said each of the three Ajyal juries will award a best film prize to their favorite short and feature-length films, for a total of six awards. The directors of the winning films are awarded funding toward their next film. The jury includes 24 international jurors who will travel to Doha for the event from 12 countries including Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Serbia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Mohaq means 'New Moon' in Arabic, and these are Ajyal's youngest jurors, aged 8-12. These jurors will watch one program of short films and four feature-length films, marking the first year that competitive feature films are included in this category. Participant films are Celestial Camel (Russia) by Yury Feting, which is about a young sheepherder living in the desolate Kalmyk Steppe, who sets off on an epic journey after his father is forced to sell the family's beloved camel calf. The Greatest House in the World (Guatemala, Mexico) by Ana V. Bojorquez and Lucia Carreras is about the circle of life told through the story of a young girl in the isolated highlands of Guatemala. Paper Planes (Australia) by Robert Connolly is a tale of friendship, creativity and the bonds of family, which centers on an 11-year-old boy with an exceptional talent for creating paper airplanes. Phantom Boy by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol (France, Belgium) an animated film about an 11-year-old boy whose illness allows him to have out-of-body experiences and mysterious powers. Ajyal's jurors aged 13-17 are the Hilal jury - the term means 'Crescent Moon' in Arabic. Five feature films and a program of shorts make up this jury's film selection. Lamb (France, Ethiopia, Germany, Norway, Qatar) by Yared Zeleke is a portrait of a young Ethiopian boy trying to find his way in the world. Landfill Harmonic (United States) by Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley, a documentary that tracks the rise of a Paraguayan youth orchestra who live next to one of South America's largest landfills and make their instruments from recycled materials. Mina Walking (Canada, Afghanistan) by Yosef Baraki is a tale of a 12-year-old girl in war-torn Afghanistan struggling to make ends meet for her family. Scarecrow (The Philippines) by Zig Madamba Dulay explores the complicated relationship of social injustice and familial expectations through the story of a young mother in a rural town. Wolf Totem (China, France) by Jean-Jacques Annaud is set against the backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution 1967, it is the story of a two young Chinese students who are sent on a research assignment with the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia and become fascinated by the wolves that roam the plains. The most mature of Ajyal's juries, Bader (Arabic for 'Full Moon') jurors are aged 18-21 and will select their favorite films from five features and two programs of short films. An (Japan, France, Germany) by Naomi Kawase is a drama about a lonely baker whose life is reinvigorated when he hires an elderly woman with a special culinary skill. The Second Mother (Brazil) by Anna Muylaert is an exploration of the bond between mothers and their children told through the story of a housekeeper in Sao Paulo. Taxi Tehran (Iran) by Jafar Panahi sees the celebrated Iranian director places himself in the driver's seat of a cab, taking fares to their destinations in a portrait of contemporary Iran. Very Big Shot (Lebanon, Qatar) is a dark comedy by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya that skewers political corruption and the media circus that goes with it. Walls (Spain) is a documentary by Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina that follows several subjects on both sides of three contemporary international borders, demonstrating that the people on each side of the barriers are not as different as they may believe. In addition to the three competitive sections, the festival's youngest audiences under the age of 8 will also vote for their favorite film with the help of their parents who will determine the parents' choice award in the Bariq program, which includes a collection of eight short films as well as an outdoor cine-concert on the Katara esplanade by the Festival Tout-Petits Cinema from Paris, with four films accompanied by live music by pianist Anthony Boulch and saxophonist Fanch Minous. (END)