All of us Emirates Film Competition filmmakers got personal invites from the Doha Film Institute (DFI) to join them for lunch.
The room was full of members of the DFI who were quick to introduce themselves to us all and take time to know more about our movies and opportunities they could provide us with, which ranged from financing for future movie projects, to a chance of having our films screened in the Doha Film Festival.
We were all quite excited to be there, almost all the Gulf and Arab stars where walking in to join us. My favourite Emirati director Nawaf Al Janahi was there too, both my friend and me took this opportunity to go and speak to him and ask him what he thought about Mahyas (our short film) as he had attended the screning on Saturday.
The best thing about Nawaf Al Janahi is that he is always helpful and never minds giving advice to other filmmakers when asked for it.
The strongest advice we got was “Never rush in making a movie, it never turns out the way you want it too if you do,” and “never make a movie for a festival or competition, make it because you want to make a movie.”
This advice is something you never get to hear in a classroom, that’s why these types of gathering of filmmakers and movie industry people, create great opportunities for young inspiring filmmakers like ourselves.
