Doha Tribeca Film Festival Appoints Executive Director

IndiWire by Peter Knegt
The inaugural 2009 Festival in Qatar has named Amanda Palmer, head of entertainment for Al Jazeera English to the position of Executive Director. In leading the festival, she will work with a team from Tribeca that includes Geoffrey Gilmore, Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises, to shape the program. The local team will include Arab documentary and short films expert Mohamed Maklouf as the festival’s Regional Programs Advisor, and Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti as Community Outreach Programmer.

Doha Tribeca Film Festival will run October 29 to November 1, 2009 and is being produced by Qatar Museums Authority in collaboration with the Tribeca Film Festival. The fest is intended to showcase the “best of the local Qatari community” as well as “the broader Arab culture.”

Gilmore joined Tribeca Enterprises back in February, after leaving a 19 year position at the Sundance Film Festival. At the time, Gilmore told indieWIRE he was joining the organization to “be involved in setting up a new paradigm, exploring the ways that festivals become platforms for new enterprises.”
DTFF will include approximately 30 films, as well as special events. In its four days in Doha, DTFF will center its events around the city’s Museum of Islamic Art.