Play it, Sam: ‘Casablanca’ finally hits Qatar’s big screen

Seventy-three years after the Hollywood movie “Casablanca” was released, Qatar audiences will get to see it for the first time on Feb. 28. It will be shown as part of a season organized by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) celebrating Academy Award-winning movies, to coincide with 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 even though Qatar’s cinema-going audience is largely made up of expatriates, the film has somehow managed to avoid being shown in the Gulf country. The DFI believes it may otherwise never have been shown, as cinemas in the Gulf are more intent on showing modern Hollywood blockbusters.