Front Row Filmed Entertainment has acquired all Middle East and North Africa rights, excluding theatrical exhibition in Egypt, for drama The Tale of Daye's Family, in a deal struck with Saudi Arabia's Big Time Fund. The film world premiered as the opening film of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea…

Riyadh-based MBC Group, the biggest media and entertainment organization in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has unveiled an innovative new partnership with Netflix. Under the accord, customers of MBCNOW – the MBC Group’s recently launched entertainment service aggregator – will have…

EXCLUSIVE: Dubai-based family entertainment group Spacetoon is making moves in Turkey. The company has hired Kemal Coşkuner, former General Manager of Disney Channel Türkiye, to lead Spacetoon Türkiye, a new free-to-air kids TV channel. Coşkuner has worked in media, broadcasting and…

EXCLUSIVE: Former Creative Artists Agency (CAA) agent Natan Bogin and Gulf-based producer Stephen Strachan have launched Globa 3, a cross-continental media and production company headquartered in Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles. The new outfit, with operations across the Gulf countries, Africa, the…

EXCLUSIVE: MAD Distribution, the theatrical arm of Cairo-based studio MAD Solutions, has acquired MENA rights to Tunisian director Amel Guellaty's coming-of-age road movie Where The Wind Comes From ahead of its world premiere in Sundance. The movie – described by MAD Distribution as "a…

U.S. director Jeff Nichols has been named as the 2024 patron of the Marrakech International Film Festival's Atlas Workshops, as the talent and project incubator also unveils the projects selected for this year's edition.Launched in 2018, the initiative has supported a raft of emerging and more…

It's a momentous Cannes for Cairo-based film professionals Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab as they mark the 15th anniversary of the creation of marketing and distribution company MAD Solutions and the 10th anniversary of spin-off the Arab Cinema Center (ACC). Under these banners, the pair have been…

EXCLUSIVE: Newly launched Dubai-based sales company MAD World has acquired worldwide rights to Egyptian director Morad Mostafa's Aisha Can't Fly Away, a tense African migrant drama shooting later this year in Egypt. The title joins the inaugural slate of MAD World, as the Arab cinema-focused…

Top Middle East and North African independent distributor and talent agency MAD Solutions is adding a new string to its bow with the launch of Arab cinema-focused international sales company MAD World. The Dubai-based company will make its market debut in Cannes. Titles on its packed…

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania's Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani's Lupita Nyong’o-EPed drama Goodbye Julia lead the nominations in the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films. Hybrid work Four Daughters, exploring the story of…

Dubai-based Front Row Productions has acquired the rights to the life story of Sally Hafez, the Lebanese woman who stormed a bank to access her savings in September 2022 during Lebanon's financial crisis, in which citizens were illegally restricted from drawing from their accounts due to an…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has handed control to its Arabic content slate to long-serving exec Nuha El Tayeb following the exit of Ahmed Sharkawi. El Tayeb has been with Netflix since 2018 and rose to her current role as Content Director for the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region and Turkey in…