Director Mira Shaib

Mira Shaib is a director known for the award-winning short film, Lilacs (2018), which premiered at Berlinale in 2017. Her first feature film, Arzé, was developed through Film Independent’s Global Media Makers (2018), the Red Sea Lodge (2019) where it won a production grant, and Torino Film Lab (2020). Raised in multi-ethnic, multi-religious family, she lacks a feeling of fully belong to any of the religious sects. The heroine of Arzé is a symbol of her divided nation in her eyes.

Director Meryam Joobeur

Meryam Joobeur believes wholeheartedly in the transformative power of storytelling and hopes that her films can capture the beauty, complexity and universal nature of the human condition. Her short films Gods (2017), Weeds and Revolutions (2012) and Born in the Maelstrom (2017) screened internationally. Her Oscar nominated short Brotherhood (2018) screened at 150 festivals and won 75 international prizes. Who Do I Belong To is her first feature film. 

Director Khaled Mansour

Khaled Mansour graduated from the Faculty of Arts, History Department, Cairo University, at the same time he studied cinema independently. Mansour honed his filmmaking skills by participating in numerous esteemed film labs and markets, where he had the opportunity to connect with influential filmmakers and mentors which enhanced his artistic vision and overall growth. His first feature film, Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo was officially selected in the 81st Venice International Film Festival.

Director Erige Sehiri

Erige Sehiri is a French-Tunisian director and producer. With her own production company, ‘Henia’, she develops Tunisian author driven documentaries distinguished at Visions du ReeI, IDFA. In 2018, her feature documentary, Railway Men, remained six weeks in Tunisian theaters. In 2021, she wrote, directed and produced her first fiction feature, Under the Fig Trees, which won several post-production awards at the Venice International Film Festival. She then joined the selection of the 54th Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes 2022.

Director Hanadi Elyan

A Palestinian-Jordanian writer/director whose work focuses on the social issues facing marginalized communities from a female perspective. She has previously won numerous funds and awards for her films, which competed in film festivals around the world. She started her film career in Jordan, then established Reel Arab Productions in Dubai. With a full ride scholarship, she earned her MFA in Film Production/Directing from UCLA. Based in Boston, Hanadi is currently an Assistant Professor of Narrative Film Directing at Emerson College.

Director Mohamed Chrif Tribak

Mohamed Chrif Tribak is a Moroccan Film Director, Screenwriter and Producer. He was born in Larache, north of Morocco, in 1971. Trained within the Federation of film clubs in Morocco, he was a trainee at the FEMIS Film School (Paris). He directed three feature films and at least four TV films for the second national channel, 2M. Time of Comrades (2008) is his first feature drama, followed by Small Pleasures and Journal Intime (2024).

Director Mo Harawe

Mo Harawe was born in 1992 in Mogadishu, Somalia. He studied Visual Communication and Film at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. His debut feature The Village Next To Paradise follows his acclaimed short films Life on the Horn (2020), which received an honorable mention at the Locarno International Film Festival, while Will My Parents Come to See Me (2022) was nominated for the European Film Award and won the Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand. The Village Next to Paradise was awarded the Atlas Workshops Prize at the Festival International du Film Marrakech.

Director Areeb Zuaiter

A multinational filmmaker based in Washington DC, Zuaiter explores art, identity, and social issues. She holds an MA in Film and Video from American University and has won multiple awards, including the Jury Award at Beirut’s European International Film Festival for her debut short, Stained (2004). She has worked at the Associated Press, served as a Goldman Sachs Film and Video Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and taught at several Washington DC universities. She also heads programming at the Amman International Film Festival.

Director Yasir Al Yasiri

Yasir Al Yasiri is an acclaimed Iraqi director, producer, and writer who has made a significant impact in Arab cinema. He began his career directing award-winning music videos before debuting with Murk Light (2012), the first Emirati film at Tribeca. His feature Shabab Sheyab (2018) premiered at Palm Springs, while 122 (2019) became a box office hit in Egypt. Al Yasiri also served as showrunner for the Starzplay series Kaboos (2023). His latest feature HWJN (2023) opened the Red Sea International Film Festival.

Director Fahad Al-Maimani

An academic at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Muscat, a faculty member at the College of Creative Industries, and a Film Production instructor in the Photography Department. He is an Omani national born in Mutrah in 1988, and a student at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. He is a board member of the Oman Film Society. He has directed and produced a number of films that have been accepted into several international film festivals, including the Saudi Film Festival, the Kazan International Festival in Russia, the I.M.A Festival in the United Kingdom.

Director Jaffer Mohammed Al-Baqali

Jaffer Mohammed Al-Baqali is a Bahraini writer and director who is a civil engineer by day and a filmmaker by night who uses an unfamiliar approach to highlight life’s greatest issues, manifesting human values. He has won many awards in Bahrain, Tunisia, Netherlands, Iraq, India, and the UAE for his film Al Hakim (2020). Before becoming a filmmaker, Al-Baqali worked as an editor and a production designer in Bahrain and beyond.

Director Mohammed Al-Ajmi

Mohammed Al-Ajmi has been working as the Secretary of the Society at Omani Society for Cinema and Theater since 2018 and a media specialist at Ministry of Labor. He directed many short and feature-length documentaries and fiction films including the documentaries like Sohar, Nizwa, Oman is Proud of Us and Minutes Film.