Qatar’s nascent Film Committee and Oscar-winning U.S. indie powerhouse Neon have signed a four-year co-development, co-production and co financing deal, one of several “milestone” agreements being unveiled in Doha by Hassan Al Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament.
The Qatar Film Committee, an official body that is part of the Media City Qatar hub that is tasked with driving growth of the country’s entertainment industry, also announced the launch of a regional rebate, details of which will soon be specified and, also still unspecified collaborations with the Cannes and Cairo film festivals.
“We are building the foundations of a world class [film and TV] ecosystem with new infrastructure, production facilities and post production capabilities supported by vast technology, and data analytics, said Al Thawadi (pictured) during the opening panel of the inaugural Doha Film Festival‘s Industry days that involved a fireside chat with Neon CEO and founder Tom Quinn. “Our mission is to create an environment where filmmakers can dream openly,” he added.
The agreement between Neon and the committee sees the partners co-developing and produce six to 10 feature films and short films over a four-year period.
The second announced partnership between Doha-based Katara Studios and U.S. indie studio Department M, founded by Mike Larocca and Michael Schaefer, that will see them partner on a biopic about the Syrian military officer known as Caesar who put his own life at risk by smuggling tens of thousands of pictures depicting torture under Bashar Assad to expose the Syrian regime’s torture and human-rights abuses.
More to follow