Cannes · May 16, 2026
During the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, the Doha Film Institute brought its 15-year cinematic journey to the French Riviera with a reception at the Carlton Beach Club, marking the launch of Atlas of Cinematic Affinities: 15 Years of Doha Film Institute.
The evening brought together filmmakers, producers and figures from Arab and international cinema as the Institute celebrated the publication and the creative community that has grown around its work since its founding.
The Atlas of Cinematic Affinities traces DFI's first 15 years through the creative journeys of independent filmmakers connected to its programmes. Rather than presenting cinema simply through finished films, the publication opens up the process behind them, bringing together sketches, notebooks, mood boards, personal archives, research and other materials contributed by filmmakers.
More than 8,000 pages of material were submitted by filmmakers connected to DFI-supported projects across more than 80 countries, forming the basis of the 400-page bilingual Arabic-English publication.
For DFI, the Cannes launch offered a fitting setting for a publication built around the connections between filmmakers, cultures and creative influences. The Institute's Cannes reception has become an established meeting point for the international film community, with the Carlton Beach Club serving as its Cannes venue since 2025.
The 2026 edition also came during a particularly significant Cannes for DFI. Seven films supported through the Institute's funding programmes were selected for the festival, spanning the Official Competition, Un Certain Regard, Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week.
The Atlas itself looks beyond individual festival selections, documenting a wider network of filmmakers and creative relationships built through DFI's ecosystem. Created to mark the Institute's 15th anniversary, the publication covers the period from 2010 to 2025 and reflects DFI's focus on independent filmmaking, particularly across the Arab world, while extending across an international community of storytellers.
At the Carlton Beach Club, that history moved from the pages of the book back into the world that produced it: filmmakers, cinema professionals and cultural figures gathering in Cannes around a shared commitment to storytelling across borders.
For DUCHELLE, the reception was another moment from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival where cinema extended beyond the screen — into the conversations, encounters and creative communities that shape what comes next.