Early life and education
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He is a New York Film Academy Screenplay graduate. [21]
Meshal Aljaser is a Saudi Arabian filmmaker, most notable for fast cutting, and topics that address the clash of Saudi culture, and musings at religious belief and the afterlife. His made a mini-series Folaim Ya Gholaim, [1] and a short film Arabian Alien which premiered in the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. His short film Is Sumyati Going to Hell? tackles issues of religion, culture, and injustice towards maids in Saudi Arabia. It is told from the eyes of a young protagonist who questions her family's beliefs. It is featured as part of Netflix's six windows in the desert. [2] [3] [4] He has often tried to push the cultural boundaries through provocative videos, such as when he features a Saudi man licking an American woman's face on his music video "Fadayeh" [scandals]. [5]
Aljaser's style is often satirical, experimental and fast-paced. He has won numerous awards such as Ahmad Al Shugairi's program Qomrah 2, for creating the film "Under Concrete" addressing the issues of Refugees of the Syrian civil war and homelessness. [6] [7] [8]
His film Arabian Alien is considered a genre of science fiction, and addresses the marriage between a couple who finds himself an alien. [9] It features Saudi comedian Abu Hamdan, and the music of Saudi-American R&B musician Tamtam. [10] [11] [12] [13] It premiered at Sundance Film Festival, won best short film at Atlanta Film Festival, making it eligible for best short film at the Oscars. [14] [15] [16]
His debut feature comedy-thriller film, Naga, premiered in the midnight madness section at Toronto International Film Festival, and stars Saudi American actress Adwa Bader (who was also selected for TIFF Rising Stars. [17] [18] The film tells the story of a Saudi woman who breaks the curfew imposed by her conservative father to go on a date, but finds herself stranded in the desert with creepy men and a rabid camel. [19] [20]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2023) |
He is a New York Film Academy Screenplay graduate. [21]
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film, or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.
The music of Saudi Arabia includes both Western and traditional music. The most distinguished musician in recent Saudi history is Tariq Abdulhakeem, who composed hundreds of famous Saudi songs for himself as well as for other singers; Saraj Omar has become a very prominent composer after writing the music for the Saudi national anthem; Mohammed Abdu, the most famous singer in the Arab World; Talal Maddah who died in August 2000 while singing in the summer festival on the stage of Al-Muftaha Theatre in the southern region of Saudi Arabia. The 1st Arab Pioneers Festival, which was held in Cairo under the patronage of the Arab League, honored four of the lead composers in Saudi Arabia: Tariq Abdulhakeem, Ghazi Ali, Mohamed Alsenan, and Mohammed Shafiq. Of the same generation are the oud virtuoso Abadi al Johar, Rabeh Saqer and Abdul-Majeed Abdullah.
Saeed Ali Al-Owairan Al-Dossari is a Saudi Arabian former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward for Saudi Pro League club Al-Shabab. Widely considered to be the greatest Asian footballer of all time, Al-Owairan is renowned for his goal in the 1994 World Cup against Belgium, which was considered the sixth-best in FIFA's Goal of the Century rankings. He had scored 283 goals across his 13 year career.
Middle Eastern cinema collectively refers to the film industries of West Asia and part of North Africa. By definition, it encompasses the film industries of Egypt, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As such, the film industries of these countries are also part of the cinema of Asia, or in the case of Egypt, Africa.
Abdullah Al-Eyaf is a Saudi Arabian film director also known as Abdullah Al Eyaf or Abdullah Aleyaf. He has directed many award-winning films.
Arab cinema or Arabic cinema refers to the film industry of the Arab world which depends for most of its production on the Egyptian cinema.
Cinema of the United Arab Emirates began with a number of feature films that were broadcast on national television since the late 1980s.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
Haifaa al-Mansour is a Saudi Arabian film director. She is one of the country's best-known and one of the first female Saudi filmmakers.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival, formerly the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 2015.
Brandon Cronenberg is a Canadian director and screenwriter. He is the son of renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg and the brother of Caitlin Cronenberg. He is known for his science fiction horror films Antiviral (2012), Possessor (2020) and Infinity Pool (2023). He has won several accolades for his work.
Nāyla al-Khāja is the first female film writer, director, and producer in the United Arab Emirates. Al-Khaja's films have screened at more than 42 film festivals worldwide.
A growing number of film festivals are held in the Arab world to showcase films from the region as well as international standouts. In addition, institutions and organizations in other parts of the world are increasingly honoring the new generation of filmmakers in the Arab world with Arab film festivals.
Diana El Jeiroudi, is a Berlin-based, Syrian independent film director and producer. El Jeiroudi’s films as director were celebrated at many festivals, including the Venice Film Festival, IDFA, DokLeipzig, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX… among others. Her producing credits include the Sundance 2023 film 5 Seasons of Revolution, the Cannes Film Festival 2014 selection Silvered Water, the IDFA 2013 selection The Mulberry House, among others. She was the first Syrian to be a juror in Cannes Film Festival in 2014, when she was part of the first Documentary Film Award jury in the festival. Together with her partner Orwa Nyrabia, El Jeiroudi was also the first Syrian known to be invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2017. El Jeiroudi was also a co-founder of DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival in Syria and DOX BOX e.V. non-profit association in Germany.
Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Ahd Hassan Kamel is an actress and filmmaker from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is known for her role in the BAFTA-nominated film, Wadjda (2014) and for her role as Fatima in BBC Two's Collateral (2018).
Maha Al-Saati is a Saudi Arabian female filmmaker, university assistant professor and graduate of Simon Fraser University who has taught both in Vancouver, Canada and Saudi Arabia. Her academic research covers the representation of architectural spaces, education through the use of film, and the influence of religion and culture on media. She is also an alum of the TIFF filmmaker lab 2020, TIFF Writers Studio 2021, and recipient of the TIFF Share Her Journey award 2020. She is of mixed Arab and Uzbek heritage.
The UnRedacted, first released as Jihad Rehab, is a 2022 documentary film which follows a group of former jihadists who have been released from Guantanamo Bay detention camp to the Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef Center for Advice and Care, a rehabilitation center for Islamist jihadis in Saudi Arabia. The film was conceived and directed by Meg Smaker. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition on 22 January 2022 and earned generally "strong" reviews, described as "humanizing" and powerful.
Mohammed Al Turki is a Saudi Arabian film producer.
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