Hollywood heads to Doha festival

Martin Scorsese and Ben Kingsley helped put the Doha Film Festival on the map

Martin Scorsese, Robert de Niro and Sir Ben Kingsley were among the stars attending the inaugural Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar.

A documentary about a high school debating society, Team Qatar, won the best film prize.

Palestinian movie Pomegranates and Myrrh won the Audience Award.

The original Tribeca film festival was founded by De Niro in New York in 2001, with its aim to reinvigorate the area following the September 11 attacks.

De Niro helped organise the festival with Qatari authorities.

The Tribeca brand has offered Doha serious credibility - over the past eight years the original Tribeca festival has been seen as a champion of young, local directors.

"Almost one year ago, we made an announcement to launch this festival. This has been an unforgettable and richly rewarding journey as we created an innovative partnership to build an event worthy of this wonderful and dynamic city," said De Niro.

'Building bridges'

Sir Ben stressed the benefits of future collaboration.

"I've come to Doha because I'm a film-maker and am interested in forming links here both in terms of funding and in finding locations to make those films in," he said.

The films were projected on outdoor screens, either on the beach or in Doha's souk, as well as being shown in an open theatre built specifically for the festival in the grounds of the city's new Islamic Museum.

Amelia, the story of Amelia Earhart, was chosen to open the film festival.

Geoffrey Gilmore, the creative director of Tribeca New York, said he was impressed with the idea of a film about a pioneering woman opening the event.

"It just shows that we're all guilty of stereotypes and you come out here and find they're wrong. Film is a wonderful way of building bridges between people and that's what we're here to do."