Majid Al Remaihi after winning at Vienna Shorts Film Festival
Doha: Qatari film And Then They Burn The Sea bagged the main prize in the Fiction and Documentary International Competition at Vienna Shorts Film Festival, an Oscars qualifying festival. The film also qualified for the Austrian Film Award, the British Film Award, and the European Film Award.
The film, directed by Majid Al Remaihi, is an ode to the filmmaker’s mother whose memories abruptly left her during the making of the film. Vienna Shorts jury said the film “beautifully blends family archives with reenacted dreams.”
H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in a tweet, congratulated Al Remaihi on his achievement and said the award is “a notable and unprecedented accomplishment for Qatari cinema.”
The director, in an Instagram post, thanked the Doha Film Institute which funded the film, and other personalities. And Then They Burn The Sea which is in Arabic is 19 minutes long and was filmed on an abandoned fishermen's village in northern Qatar.
The film has been making its global streak of acclaim for past years. This year alone, it has been screened at the Malmö Arab Film Festival based in Sweden, competed at the Festival Internacional de Cine LatinArab on Arab Short Film Competition, and was selected for screening at Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival Shorts Programme — the largest programme to date.
Moreover, it is the first Qatari film to be selected for screening at 75 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. It also won the Silver Tahit Award at Carthage Film Festival; Best Experimental Short, Message to Man International Film Festival in St. Petersburg; and Special Mention at FrontDoc International Film Festival in Italy, and won the Made in Qatar Best Documentary Prize at the 9th Ajyal Film Festival.
Vienna Shorts Film Festival is a qualifying event for the Austrian Film Award, the British Film Award, the European Film Award and the Oscars, and is one of two EU-funded film festivals in Austria.
