Watermelon Pictures

Watermelon Pictures

Company type	Private
Industry	Film industry
Founded	2024;1 year ago (2024)
Area served	United States
Website	watermelonpictures.com

Watermelon Pictures is an American film production and distribution company founded in 2024 by Badie and Hamza Ali. The company has distributed Israelism (2023), Life Is Beautiful (2023), From Ground Zero (2024), To a Land Unknown (2024), and The Encampments (2025).

History

In April 2024, it was announced Badie and Hamza Ali had launched Watermelon Pictures a company specializing in film production, financing, and distribution, with Alana Hadid set to serve as creative director. ^{[1] [2]} The mission of the company is to showcase Palestinians and Arabs, who have been poorly represented and dehumanized in mainstream media. ^{[3] [4]}

The company's first release Walled Off, a documentary focusing on The Walled Off Hotel, directed by Vin Arfuso, and executive produced by Roger Waters, Kweku Mandela and Anwar Hadid was released on May 3, 2024. ^[5]

Watermelon Pictures has launched in May 2025 a streaming service, Watermelon+, "that will serve as a home for its upcoming releases as well as several decades’ worth of Palestinian cinema," with the rights to 70 films "including Oscar nominees Omar , 5 Broken Cameras and Theeb ". ^[6]

Distributed films

• Omar
• 5 Broken Cameras
• Theeb
• From Ground Zero
• Remember Us
• The Teacher
• The Encampments ^[6]
• The Color of Olives
• The Glassworker

References

1. "Watermelon Pictures Launches, Alana Hadid Named Creative Director". PR Newswire . April 4, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
2. Bedirian, Razmig (July 10, 2024). "How Alana Hadid's Watermelon Pictures aims to 'dispel the propaganda' against Palestinians". The National . Retrieved February 3, 2025.
3. Issawi, Danya (June 11, 2024). "Alana Hadid Wants to Build the "Palestinian A24"". The Cut . Retrieved February 3, 2025.
4. "Alana Hadid on reclaiming the Palestinian narrative through art and film". TRT World . July 21, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2025.
5. Wiseman, Andreas (April 4, 2024). "Alana Hadid Leading Film Label Watermelon Pictures, First Movie Is Palestine Documentary 'Walled Off'". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved February 3, 2025.
6. Horton, Adrian (14 May 2025). "'We need to do something': the company releasing Palestinian films no one else will". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2025.

External links

• Official website