Neon’s Tom Quinn, A24’s Daniel Katz and Barbara Broccoli head to Qatar
Tom Quinn, CEO and founder of Neon, will be the opening speaker on Friday at a new industry event hosted by the Qatar Film Commission in collaboration with the Doha Film Institute as part of the new Doha Film Festival.
The festival and new industry event comes amid renewed international focus on the Gulf region following talk earlier this week that Qatar and neighbors Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi could be part of a $71 billion bid from Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Emerging Films Committee was established in 2022 and falls under the jurisdiction of the Media City in Qatar, which is the body charged with developing the Gulf state as a media center and creative industries. The Emerging Films Committee is headed by Hassan Al-Thawadi, the Qatari lawyer who oversaw the organization of the World Cup in Qatar.
After operating under the radar so far, the authority is expected to make a series of big announcements about funding initiatives and partnerships at the three-day Industry Days event.
Quinn and Al-Thawadi will participate in its first session, which is described as a friendly conversation moderated by Faisal Al-Aqel, a Kuwaiti businessman and co-founder and CEO of SARD Group, one of the largest media and communications companies in the region.
Friday’s program also includes a panel discussion on producing for a global audience with Jonathan Glickman. The former head of the MGM Motion Picture Group took over in late 2024 from Bill Block as CEO of Miramax, which is jointly owned by Qatar’s beIN Media Group and Paramount Skydance.
Indian producer Siddharth Roy Kapoor (Dangal, Chennai Express), Nigerian media mogul and EbonyLife CEO Mo Abudu and Crazy rich asianFilm producer John Penotti will discuss how stories, talent and financing from the Global South are reshaping the global cinematic ecosystem.
The final panel that day will feature Section M founders, Mike LaRocca and Michael Schaefer, and Brazilian producer and CEO, Rodrigo Teixeira (I’m still here) Exploring how producers adapt to a specific industry through changing flow and distribution and new financing models.
Highlights over the weekend will include a closed session with A24 Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Katz, where he will share the story of how the company grew from a small independent distributor to become one of the most influential entertainment companies.
In another closed session, she will be joined by Barbara Broccoli, who has several projects on the boil in the wake of the waiver with her brother Michael J. Wilson transferred the rights to their family’s James Bond franchise to Amazon MGM Studios over the summer, to Oscar-nominated producer Nicky Bentham for a masterclass on creative production in a changing landscape.
Other guest speakers include Shibinem Askin, Executive Vice President of Creative Production and President of Sony Pictures, who will discuss how international intellectual property can inspire and enable local storytelling, while Stephen Ball, CEO of SP Media Group, will talk about “The New Economics of Global Storytelling” with Hans Fryken, former Commissioner for Film and Television at the Abu Dhabi Film Commission.
The new Industry Days are being launched in conjunction with the Doha Film Festival, led by the Doha Film Institute, which opened on Thursday with the premiere of a film in the Middle East and North Africa region. Hind Rajab’s voice. Both events are part of a larger strategy to take the country’s film and television activities to the next level.