Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, festival director and CEO of DFI, said: “Geekdom perfectly embodies the spirit of our festival’s theme this year, ‘Press: Play!’ It connects the community through our common love for fun and fantasy as a group. The beauty of Geekdom is its marvellous diversity of ages and cultures, where all generations celebrate their collective appreciation for integrating fun into technical and intellectual pursuits. Geekdom allows us to embrace our inner child with its pop-culture ethos to strengthen the social bonds of our community.”
Geekdom Tournaments will have a selection of titles – from Pokemon GO to the league of Legends, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Guilty Gear Strive, FIFA22, Valorant, Street Fighter V and Tekken 7.
Geekdom Screenings include four classic Disney hits and two anime features. Mulan (USA/1998), directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft on November 8 at 4pm is about a girl who lives under a patriarchal regime and impersonates a man to prevent her ailing father from being drafted into the Chinese military. The Lion King (USA/1994) will be screened on November 9 at 4pm, in Arabic. An all-time favourite directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, the film charts the adventures of young lion Simba.
Beauty and the Beast (USA/1991) directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, about a young prince and his castle's servants who fall under a wicked spell for his arrogance, is screened on November 10 at 4pm. Tarzan (USA, UK/1999) directed by Chris Buck and Kevin Lima, about the orphaned boy who grows up in the wilderness of Africa and raised by the gentle gorilla Kala, is on November 13 at 4pm.
Screening at VOX Doha Festival City are anime features Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (Japan/2020) directed by Kotaro Tamura (Japan/2020) about Tsuneo, a university student with dreams of diving abroad. While out walking one day, he gets a job assisting Josee, an artist whose imagination takes her far beyond her wheelchair. The screenings are on November 9 at 5.30pm and on November 13 at 2.30pm. Poupelle of Chimney Town (Japan/2020) a stunning anime directed by Yusuke Hirota, is about young Lubicchi, who lives in Chimney Town, a place where the sky is eternally grey due to the countless smokestacks that billow out soot into the air. It will be screened on November 12 and 13 at 5.30pm.
Geekdom’s official partners include: Virtuocity, Fnac, Sony, Talabat, Qatar FGC, PokemonGO Qatar, Kanpaki, Anime cafe, Qatar Motor & Motorcycle Federation, Museum of Illusion and Nakama.