Doha Film Festival will show seven films from the Gulf in Cinema Alkhaleej, a programme it is launching at this year’s edition, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) announced on 29 October. Three of the titles come from Saudi Arabia, including two features; Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have one short each. The festival runs in Doha on 19–27 November 2026.
Key facts
- Cinema Alkhaleej has two features and five shorts, from five Gulf countries
- Saudi Arabia has three titles: My Driver and I, Soulala and Dunya’s Day
- My Driver and I, by Ahd Kamel, won best feature film at the 2025 Saudi Film Festival, according to DFI
- Doha Film Festival runs 19–27 November 2026; Katara, Media City Qatar’s Film Committee and Visit Qatar are named as key partners
The two features
Both features are Saudi. Ahd Kamel’s My Driver and I (Salma Wa Qamar) is set in Jeddah in the 1980s and 1990s. It follows a friendship between Salma, a teenager from a wealthy Saudi family, and Gamar, the family’s Sudanese driver. DFI says it won best feature film at the Saudi Film Festival in 2025.
Hisham Fakih’s Soulala is a horror film. A man returns to his mother’s isolated date farm and finds something that threatens to keep him there; DFI’s synopsis says the film looks at how ties between parents and children can mean devotion and control at once.
The five shorts
Raed Alsemari’s Dunya’s Day is the third Saudi entry. Its heroine has a few hours before her graduation party when the household staff walk out, leaving her and two friends to rescue the occasion.
From Oman, Muzna Almusafer’s Clouds follows Dablan, a widower whose village is threatened by a leopard; under tribal pressure to kill it, he decides to set it free. Nada Jahed’s Namoos, from the UAE, mixes observational footage with reconstruction to follow Noora as she prepares for her first competitive camel race. Haya Alghanim’s An Evening with Laila, from Kuwait, returns to a chapter of the country’s cultural history through a woman whose artistic ambitions opened up what music in the Gulf could be. Omar Farooq’s Salem Not Salem, from Bahrain, follows a young man who begins to experience things no one around him can see; as his sister and best friend try to help, he struggles to tell faith from madness and faces the stigma around mental health.
DFI chief executive and festival director Fatma Hassan Alremaihi said in the announcement that the programme reflects the institute’s commitment to Gulf voices. She added: “We bring these films to audiences in Doha to honour the filmmakers who are redefining regional cinema and creating space for new perspectives.”
Where it fits
DFI announced Cinema Alkhaleej after naming the international feature competition jury, which Naomi Kawase will chair. The Doha dates follow the Arab festival run that included El Gouna, where Mohammed Hammad’s Safe Exit won the Golden Star. We have also tracked how Arab films perform in the region’s own cinemas, as with Matloub Aelian in Egypt.
DFI has not said whether the strand carries prizes, and screening dates, running times and sales representation for the seven films were not in the announcement.
Our reading
A dedicated Gulf section tells regional producers that Doha wants to be a home audience for their work, not only a funder or a market. Saudi Arabia’s three titles, against one each from four neighbours, and its hold on both feature slots point to where Gulf feature production is concentrated, at least in this selection.
For buyers, the two features are the titles to watch. My Driver and I arrives with a domestic award and a period setting that travels to festivals; Soulala is a horror film, a genre with a trading life outside its home market. The evidence will be whether either film leaves Doha with a sales agent or a regional distributor attached, and whether the strand returns in 2027 with more features.
Sources
- Doha Film Institute press release, 29 October 2026 (programme, synopses, Alremaihi quote, dates)
- Qatar News Agency, 29 October 2026
- The Peninsula, 29 October 2026
- MAD Distribution, My Driver and I film page (original title)
- Elaph, 30 October 2026 (Arabic titles)
- Doha Film Institute press release, international competition jury