Suzannah Mirghani’s Cotton Queen and Gullermo Galoe’s Sleepless City were among the winners at Doha Film Festival (DFF), which closed its inaugural edition this evening (Friday, November 28).
Mirghani’s debut feature Cotton Queen won the audience award, to a raucous reception at the ceremony in Doha’s Katara Drama Theatre venue. Pointing to the large team from the film who joined her on stage, Mirghani quipped “we always travel this way.”
Scroll down for the full list of feature winners
“The Sudanese people really show up – as do the people of Doha,” she added.
Cotton Queen debuted in Critics’ Week at Venice Film Festival this year. With backers including the Doha Film Institute (DFI) which runs DFF, the film is set in a Sudanese cotton-farming village, where the simple lives of a woman and her village are disrupted by the arrival of a young businessman.
Galoe’s Spain-France co-production Sleepless City took the best narrative award from the international feature competition. A Cannes Critics’ Week premiere from this year, it follows a 15-year-old navigating between tradition and survival as his scrap-collecting family faces eviction from their home.
“I especially want to send up prayers and share this moment with Palestinian brothers and sisters, who are living in a genocide,” said Galoe, as one of several award recipients to reference events of recent years in Gaza.
Jihan K gave an emotional speech in accepting the best documentary prize for her film My Father And Qaddafi, which sees her investigate her father’s disappearance in Cairo in 1993 while documenting her mother’s 19-year search for truth.
“I was beckoning my mother to come up [on stage] with me, because she’s the director of my life,” said Jihan. “I accept this award on behalf of my family – my mother, and my father, who loved and fought for his country. And also for the Libyan people, the people that he lived and died for.”
Kaouther Ben Hania’s docudrama The Voice Of Hind Rajab received the best feature prize from the Ajyal youth jury, comprised of members aged 16-25 from around the world. Cast member Saja Kilani was on hand to accept the prize.
The good-natured ceremony had several lighter moments too, including co-host Nasser Al-Rayes’s joke about his mother demanding a refund when he tricked her into taking him to see Anchorman with Will Ferrell as a kid; and Rithy Panh, DFI advisor and international jury president, joking that he has been mistaken for Ai Weiwei and Jackie Chan; then skipping across the stage when he left an award on his seat.
“This festival is a promise that creativity will always have a space, that diverse voices will always be heard, and that Qatar will continue to open its doors to artists shaping a connected and compassionate world,” said DFI CEO and DFF festival director Fatma Hassan Alremaihi in her closing remarks.
The festival has played 97 films from 62 countries; as well as hosting panels, discussions, and a strong line in music events, with concerts by artists including Yasiin Bey, and Palestinian stars Saint Levant, Zeyne and Elyanna.
It has also promoted significant changes to the Qatari industry, with the announcement of a cash rebate of up to 50% and several major partnerships with US production firms at last weekend’s Industry Days.
Doha Film Festival 2025 winners
International Feature Film Competition
Best narrative – Sleepless City (Sp-Fr) dir. Guillermo Galoe
Best documentary – My Father And Qaddafi (US-Lib) dir. Jihan K
Best artistic achievement – Chie Hayakawa, Renoir; Kamal Al Jafari, With Hasan In Gaza, ex aequo
Best performance – Majd Eid, Nader Abd Alhay, Once Upon A Time In Gaza
Special mention – The Reserve (Mex) dir. Pablo Perez Lombardini
Ajyal Film Competition best feature – The Voice Of Hind Rajab (Tun-Fr-UK)
Audience Award – Cotton Queen (Ger-Fr-Pal-Egy-Qat-Saudi)
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