Maryam Essa Al-Khulaifi

Maryam Al-Khulaifi is a Qatari animation producer and programmer with over two decades of experience across film production, funding, and development in the MENA region and internationally.

During her ten-year tenure at the Doha Film Institute, Maryam served as the lead animation programmer for all editions of the Ajyal Film Festival and managed the Animation Education initiative, developing hands-on training, workshops, and regional partnerships. She also oversaw the Qatari Film Fund, guiding projects from submission and evaluation through to production and international festival circulation. As a DFI delegate, she built and maintained extensive regional and international partnerships across the global festival circuit.

As an independent producer, her work spans fiction, documentary, and animation. Her animated short All This Death — a co-production between Lebanon, Germany, and Qatar, and recipient of the Netflix MENA Grant for Female Producers — was selected for the Short Films Competition at Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025.

Maryam has served as a jury member at the Arab Film Festival Zurich’s Animation Film Lab and at the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, among other festivals. Alongside her film work, she is a qualified mental health counsellor with advanced training in palliative care, holding two master’s degrees and currently pursuing a doctorate in the UK. Her future projects will focus on writing and producing her own films.