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Six fiction short-film projects have been selected from 48 applications for the inaugural Gourara Lab, a development initiative running alongside Algeria’s Timimoun International Short Film Festival.
The Timimoun International Short Film Festival has revealed the six projects selected for the first edition of its Gourara Lab, a development programme dedicated specifically to fiction short films.
The initiative, formally named the Anis Djaâd Creative Lab, received 48 project applications, from which six were chosen for an extended programme covering screenwriting, cinematic development, training, mentoring and professional guidance.
The selected projects are:
- Boulevard des rêves brisés — Sara Nacer
- Le banquet cherche ses invités — Fatma Bakhouche
- Match 7ouma — Aymen Tighiouart
- Touffah — Ahmed Reggad
- Siyaha — Sofiane Iheb Maâmri
- Ali-Lbahri — Mouayed Tiliouine
Rather than functioning simply as a pitching competition, Gourara Lab is structured around the development of the projects before they are presented to film-industry professionals during the festival.
Participants will move through writing and development stages before completing a second writing phase and ultimately pitching their projects in Timimoun.
One Project Will Receive the Anis Djaâd Development Award
At the end of the programme, one participating project will receive the Anis Djaâd development award, which includes financial support as well as artistic and professional mentoring.
The festival has not publicly specified the monetary value of the financial support.
The lab is named in memory of Algerian filmmaker and screenwriter Anis Djaâd and places particular emphasis on developing a film’s underlying idea and screenplay before production.
The project-selection committee includes producer Amina Salem Castaing of Alpha Tango, journalist, film critic and screenwriter Abdelkrim Tazaroute, and cultural professional Lyes Zaidi, who is also coordinating the lab.
Timimoun Festival Returns in November
The second Timimoun International Short Film Festival will take place in Algeria from 5–10 November 2026.
Its wider competition programme encompasses fiction, documentary and animated shorts. The festival’s 2026 submission period closed on 30 June, with films required to have been produced in either 2025 or 2026.
The festival is still relatively young, having launched in 2025, but the introduction of a dedicated project-development lab expands its role beyond exhibiting completed films.
For emerging filmmakers, initiatives of this kind can be particularly useful because support is provided while a short is still being developed, rather than only after production has been completed and the film has entered the festival circuit.
The six Gourara Lab projects will now progress through the development programme ahead of their industry presentations during the Timimoun International Short Film Festival in November.
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