Naomi Kawase Heads Doha’s 2026 Competition Jury — SkimNews
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- Doha Film Festival named Naomi Kawase to head the jury of its main international competition at the second edition, scheduled for November 19-27.
- Naomi Kawase will sit with Adam Bessa, Dora Bouchoucha, Gianfranco Rosi and Kamal Aljafari as the jury chooses winners from a 15-film lineup spanning the Arab world, Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
- Suzaku made Naomi Kawase the youngest Caméra d’Or recipient; her later The Mourning Forest (2007) won the Grand Prix, Radiance (2017) received Cannes’ Ecumenical Jury Prize and Yakushima’s Illusion (2025) premiered in competition at Locarno.
- Harka earned Adam Bessa the Best Performance Award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and Red Sea’s Best Actor award, while DFI supported it, Who Do I Belong To and Parallel Tales.
- Gianfranco Rosi is the only documentary filmmaker to have won both Venice’s Golden Lion and Berlin’s Golden Bear; Sacro GRA was the first documentary to take the Golden Lion.
- With Hasan in Gaza earned Kamal Aljafari Best Artistic Achievement at the Doha Film Festival; DFI supported it and A Fidai Film and is backing his forthcoming Beirut 1931.
- Nomadis Images is Dora Bouchoucha’s 30-year-old production company, with her credits including Satin Rouge, Inhebbek Hedi, Weldi, Behind the Mountains, Souad and Aisha Can’t Fly Away.
Why it matters: The 15 films in competition gain a judging panel with both major-festival pedigree and extensive DFI involvement: Kawase, Bessa, Rosi and Aljafari have documented links to the institute, and Aljafari previously won at Doha. For the November 19-27 festival, that pairing brings international recognition and institutional familiarity to the awards process.
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