Muriel's Wedding is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by P. J. Hogan. The film, which stars Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Jeanie Drynan, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding and improve her personal life by moving from her dead-end hometown, the fictional Porpoise Spit, to Sydney.
Ryan Corr is an Australian actor. He is known for his roles in the Australian drama series Packed to the Rafters and Love Child along with film roles in Wolf Creek 2 (2013), The Water Diviner (2014), Holding the Man (2015) and Underbelly.
Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian-Dutch film director. He has received two Academy Award nominations: in 2006 for his film Paradise Now, and again in 2013 for his film Omar.
Lucky Miles is a 2007 Australian drama feature film based on several true stories involving people entering Western Australia by boat in order to seek asylum. Its director was Michael James Rowland and its producers were Jo Dyer and Lesley Dyer.
Iraqi Australians are Australian citizens who identify themselves to be Iraqi descent. Since the 1991 Gulf War, thousands of Iraqis have found refuge in Australia. The total of population is estimated to be as high as 95,000. A Considerable part of Australia's Iraqi-born population doesn't claim Iraqi ancestry with most being Assyrian.
Osamah Sami is an Australian stage and screen actor, writer, and stand-up comedian of Iraqi origin. He is known for his book Good Muslim Boy, and the film Ali's Wedding.
Santouri with the previous name of Ali Santouri is a 2007 Iranian musical drama film directed by Dariush Mehrjui dealing with the life of a santour player named Ali Bolourchi. The film's title, "Santouri" refers to one who can play the santour instrument. In Persian "playing the Santour" is also the euphemism for injecting heroin into one's veins; thrashing, for instance, one's arm for causing the main artery of the arm to swell, in preparation for the injection, is reminiscent of playing the santour.
Arab Australians refers to Australian citizens or residents with ancestry from the Middle East and North Africa, regardless of their ethnic origins. Many are not ethnically Arab but numerous groups who include Arabs, Kurds, Copts, Assyrians, Berbers and others. The majority are Christian by faith with minorities being Muslim, Druze, Yazidi and other faiths.
Robert Rabiah is an Australian film actor, screen writer, and producer. He is best known for his roles as Hakim in Face to Face (2011), for which he was nominated for a AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Film and Best Actor at the Inside Film Awards, and as Bilal in Safe Harbour (2018) for which he was nominated at the Equity Ensemble Awards.
Adam Bakri is a Palestinian actor. He made his feature film debut by starring in Oscar-nominated film Omar, directed by Hany Abu-Assad. As of 2024, he lives in New York.
Amanda Duthie, Scottish-born Australian, is one of the leading figures in Australia's arts and culture industries and was previously the CEO/Creative Director of the Adelaide Film Festival and CEO of Hybrid World Adelaide.
Andrew John Knight is an Australian TV writer and producer of film and television, known for his work on Rake, Jack Irish, Hacksaw Ridge, Ali's Wedding and The Water Diviner.
Matchbox Pictures is a film and television production company headquartered in Sydney with production houses in Sydney, Melbourne, and Singapore. It was formed in 2008 by Tony Ayres, Penny Chapman, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon and Helen Panckhurst. In 2011, NBCUniversal took a majority stake in Matchbox Pictures, and full ownership by January 2014.
Alex & Eve is a 2015 Australian romantic comedy film directed by Peter Andrikidis and written by Alex Lykos based on Lykos's 2006 play of the same name. The film adaptation was released in October 2015 by producer, Murray Fahey's distribution company, Magicbox Entertainment. The film centres around Greek Orthodox school teacher Alex, who falls in love with a Muslim lawyer from Lebanon, Eve. The stage production of the same name premiered in 2006 and finished in 2008, with sequels running until 2016. The film explores multiculturalism in Australia, as well as the importance of family, in a light-hearted manner. The film was received with overall positive reviews and was nominated for three awards in 2016, including Best Feature Film at the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival. The film was set in Sydney, Australia and reached international audiences.
Kamel El Basha or Kamel el-Basha is a Palestinian actor, theatre director, teacher, and translator.
Helana Sawires is an Australian actress best known for portraying the lead role of Dianne, a medical student, in the first Australian Muslim romantic comedy film, Ali's Wedding (2017). She also appeared in 2016 short film Banana Boy, directed by Steven Woodburn.
Ladies in Black is a 2018 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Bruce Beresford. Starring Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Julia Ormond, Ryan Corr and Shane Jacobson, the film is based on the 1993 novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St John, and tells the story of a group of department store employees in 1959 Sydney. The film was released on 20 September 2018.
Sara West is an Australian actress, director and screen writer. She began her career with roles in short films and television roles. Her 2015 role as Liza Minnelli in television series Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door earned her a Logie Award nomination for Most Outstanding Newcomer. In 2017, West played Lyndal in the film, Don't Tell and was nominated for an AACTA Award. She also appeared in the main roles of the 2016 film Bad Girl, as Amy Anderson and the 2019 film, Awoken playing the medical student Karla. She also plays Brooke in ABC TV drama series Troppo. In 2023, West joined the cast of the soap opera Neighbours, playing Cara Varga-Murphy. West also writes and directs films and has won awards at the 2014 and 2018 South Australian Screen Awards.
Ali's Wedding (soundtrack) is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 2017 Australian romantic comedy of the same name starring Osamah Sami and Don Hany. The soundtrack is credited to Nigel Westlake, Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Joseph Tawadros, Slava Grigoryan and Lior and was released in September 2017.
House of Gods is a 2024 Australian television drama series. It is created by Osamah Sami and Shahin Shafaei and produced by Matchbox Pictures. It was broadcast on ABC TV from 25 February 2024.
