Naomi Kawase will head the international feature film competition jury at the second Doha Film Festival, which runs in the Qatari capital from 19 to 27 November. The festival announced the five-member jury on Monday 26 October. Kawase is joined by the French-Tunisian actor Adam Bessa, the Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha, the Italian documentary maker Gianfranco Rosi and the Palestinian filmmaker and artist Kamal Aljafari.
Key facts
- Jury president: Naomi Kawase (Japan)
- Members: Adam Bessa, Dora Bouchoucha, Gianfranco Rosi, Kamal Aljafari
- The jury picks the winners from a 15-film international competition, with titles from the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas
- Dates: 19–27 November 2026, organised by the Doha Film Institute (DFI)
The jury
Kawase was born in Nara and still lives and works there. She has a long history with Cannes. Her first feature, Suzaku (1997), won the Caméra d’Or, which made her the youngest winner of that prize. The Mourning Forest won the Grand Prix in 2007, and Radiance took the Ecumenical Jury Prize in 2017. She sat on the Cannes competition jury in 2013. Her most recent feature, Yakushima’s Illusion, played in competition at Locarno in 2025. She already knows the DFI: in 2016 she was one of the mentors, known as Masters, at its Qumra development event.
Bessa came to international attention with Lotfy Nathan’s Harka (2022). The role won him a performance prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and best actor at the Red Sea International Film Festival. Since then he has starred in Meryam Joobeur’s Who Do I Belong To, which competed at the 2024 Berlinale, and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail, which brought him a César nomination. This year he appears in Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales. The DFI backed all three of those films.
Bouchoucha co-founded the Tunis company Nomadis Images with the director Ibrahim Letaïef in 1995. She is among the Arab world’s best-known producers, and her credits include Satin Rouge, Inhebbek Hedi, Weldi and Aisha Can’t Fly Away.
Rosi is the only documentary maker to have won both Venice’s Golden Lion, for Sacro GRA in 2013, and Berlin’s Golden Bear, for Fire at Sea in 2016. Fire at Sea was also nominated for an Oscar. His Below the Clouds won a special jury prize at Venice in 2025. He was a Qumra Master in 2018.
Aljafari’s A Fidai Film (2024) won the jury prize in the Burning Lights competition at Visions du Réel and the Tanit d’Or at Carthage. His documentary With Hasan in Gaza won best artistic achievement at last year’s Doha Film Festival. The DFI supported both films and is backing his next feature, Beirut 1931.
The festival
The Doha Film Festival grew out of Ajyal, the DFI’s youth and family festival, which ran for more than a decade in the same November slot. The second edition opens its competition with Sara Ishaq’s The Station, a drama about Yemen’s civil war. The top prizes are worth $75,000 for best narrative feature, $50,000 for best documentary, $45,000 for artistic achievement and $15,000 for a single, gender-neutral performance award, according to Variety. Katara, Media City Qatar’s Film Committee and Visit Qatar are partners.
Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, the DFI’s chief executive and the festival’s director, described the jury as “friends of the Institute” who had spent their careers supporting independent cinema.
We reported on the Red Sea Fund’s latest round of grants last month, and on demand for screenings at this year’s Tokyo festival, which runs until 4 November. More is in our festivals and markets section.