Casablanca gets its big-screen release in Qatar - 73 years after it came out

73 years after iconic Hollywood movie ‘Casablanca’ was released, Qatar audiences will get to see it for the first time on February 28. It will be shown as part of a season organised by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) celebrating Academy Award winning movies, to celebrate this year’s Oscars ceremony.

Casablanca is an iconic Hollywood classic that is as powerful today as when it was released.

Chadi Zeneddine, Programmer and Resident Filmmaker of the DFI

The film is one of the most celebrated of all time and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1944 as well as Best Screenplay. But despite being considered one of the greatest movies ever made, and with Qatar’s cinema-going audience largely made up of expatriates, the film has somehow managed to avoid being shown in the Gulf country. The DFI believes it may never have been shown as cinemas in the Gulf are more intent on showing modern Hollywood blockbusters.

Casablanca Arts