MAD Solutions & Arab Cinema Center Founders Alaa Karkouti And Maher Diab Talk 15 Years Of Promoting Arab Cinema: “People Told Us We Were Crazy”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Leading Middle East network MBC Group has ordered an Arabic redo of “The Good Wife” set in Egypt with Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabri (“Finding Ola”) in the lead role. Sabri plays a woman who returns to the legal profession after her husband, who holds a prominent public position, becomes embroiled in scandal.

A man, known for his particular eating habits, spends an additional £300 to bring his own food on holiday, despite his wife shelling out £1,400 for all-inclusive vacations. John Phillips fills a suitcase with Pot Noodles, crisps, biscuits and sausages to ensure he can savour 'good old-fashioned English' meals while overseas.

“We really led with our hearts for everything we watched,” said 77th Cannes Film Festival Jury President Greta Gerwig on what was a fiercely competitive year.

Self-taught Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi posted a Tweet in 2011 predicting that cinemas would re-open in his country in 2018 after a 35-year ban.

Lise Pedersen Three days after its Critics’ Week world premiere, “The Brink of Dreams” director-producer team of Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir delved into the making of their documentary in an exclusive, behind-the-scenes conversation at the Palais des Festivals. Hosted by the Cannes Docs sidebar of the Marché du Film, the conversation saw the Cairo-based Felucca Films duo offer insider intel and tips on their sophomore feature. Their debut feature, “Happily Ever After,” premiered at IDFA in 2016.

Jack Dunn In 2023, Saudi Arabian film agency Film AlUla formed AlUla Creates, a local initiative that provides funding, mentorship and networking opportunities for Saudi filmmakers and fashion designers. And in just one year, AlUla Creates has exploded into a global brand, already hosting 123 international productions in the scenic valleys of AlUla, Saudi Arabia. “We call it a living museum,” said marketing director at Film AlUla Mahsa Motamedi.

Jet have announced their first UK and Ireland tour in 15 years in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their seminal 2003 debut album ‘Get Born’.The UK and Ireland tour marks the band’s return to the countries since 2009. It will kick off on October 3 at The Academy in Dublin.

Naman Ramachandran Oscar-, BAFTA-, Golden Globe- and Grammy-winning composer A.R. Rahman, veteran producer Bobby Bedi and the Technicolor Group have unveiled a film project based on Middle Eastern wit Mulla Nasruddin at the Cannes Film Festival. Also known as Nasreddin Hodja, Nasruddin was a 13th century folklore character from what is now Turkey, known for his pithy wit and humorous wisdom.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent A new Saudi Arabian film studio with deep pockets and Hollywood connections is launching from the Cannes Film Festival with a slate of film and TV projects. The Los Angeled-based 3SIX9 Studios – announced at an event on a yacht in the bay of Cannes – is co-founded by actor and producer Daya Fernández, who serves as CEO; Inga V.

In a truly wholesome start to his Sunday, Peter Andre shared an adorable new photo as he cuddled his baby daughter after becoming a dad of five.The Mysterious Girl singer, 51, who welcomed his daughter with his wife Emily MacDonagh, looked completely smitten in the snap as he held Arabella on his chest and gushed: "Love my Sunday morning cuddles." Peter, who is also a doting father to Junior, 18, Princess, 16, Amelia, 10, and Theo, 7, took to Instagram on Sunday, 19 May to share the snap, adding the caption: "Emily took the photo and I asked her if I could post it. Still waiting on an answer ……..

Reflecting on her career, Lena Waithe says, “I think about legacy a lot.”  The writer-producer-actor, whose body of work includes creating Showtime drama The Chi and BET’s Twenties, has been on a steady upward trajectory since winning a primetime Emmy Award in 2017 for outstanding writing on Netflix’s Master of None. But for Waithe, success raised questions about where she was headed. “I didn’t know what I was actually trying to build. I wanted to have real agency over my career, but it was also not just about me, it’s about who I can work with.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sudanese first-timer Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan, has won top awards for both fest feature film and best screenplay at the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films that will be handed out today at the Plage des Palmes in Cannes. The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes’ official selection, where it premiered in Un Certain Regard last year, “Goodbye Julia” (pictured) is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the war-ravaged country.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Variety will present a Women in Cinema Panel at the Cannes Film Festival in tandem with the Red Sea International Film Festival featuring top talents from Egypt, India, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Senegal. The panel will take place at La Plage Des Palmes on Saturday, May 18, at 12pm CET.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia leads this year’s Arab cinema contingent at Cannes with pioneering director Tawfik Alzaidi’s “Norah” launching internationally from Un Certain Regard plus a clutch of films in other sections by directors from Egypt, Palestine and Morocco. They collectively reflect both the vibrancy and the many hurdles that filmmakers face in the region.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Arab cinema continues to break new ground with a fresh crop of social dramas, several of which depict female empowerment in different forms. These range from the tale of a young woman who fakes being dead so she can leave everything behind, to a rape-revenge thriller titled “Beretta,” just like the semi-automatic pistol used by Suad, its mute protagonist. Below is a compendium of promising upcoming Arabic-language films in various stages that will be surfacing either at festivals or on streamers.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Untamed Talent, the recently launched Arab world management and production company led by former Mister Smith Entertainment executive Antone Saliba is rebranding as 75East and bringing on board Shams Mohajerani, a former acquisitions executive at Cairo-based MAD Solutions, as its chief manager and producer. The change in name to 75East of the company, which launched last December with backing from Front Row Productions – a joint venture between leading Middle East distribution companies Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Empire Entertainment – is a geographical reference to the wider Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) region from Morocco to Pakistan, “reflecting the company’s commitment to representing talent beyond Arabic-speaking territories,” according to a statement.

Mad Max director George Miller has opened up about Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s on-set feud during the filming of Mad Max: Fury Road.In a new interview with The Telegraph, Miller opened up about the notorious feud that broke out between the pair saying that at the heart of it, “they were just two very different performers.”He explained: “Tom has a damage to him but also a brilliance that comes with it, and whatever was going on with him at the time, he had to be coaxed out of his trailer…Whereas Charlize was incredibly disciplined – a dancer by training, which told in the precision of her performance – and always the first one on set.”He continued: “I’m an optimist, so I saw their behavior as mirroring their characters, where they had to learn to co-operate in order to ensure mutual survival. There’s no excuse for it, and I think there’s a tendency in this business to use great performances as an excuse for other disruption that could be avoided.”In the Mad Max: Fury Road oral history book, Blood, Sweat & Chrome, Theron said her relationship on set with hardy “was like two parents in the front of the car.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

Peter Andre was the picture of a devoted dad as he took a lovely walk with his wife and their newborn baby – as our exclusive pictures show.The singer and presenter, 51, was casually dressed in a white tee and jeans, and couldn't stop smiling as he gazed adoringly at his wife Emily, who was pushing their youngest daughter in a pram during their adorable outing on Saturday, 11 May. Emily, an 34 year old NHS doctor, also looked radiant and stylish in sunglasses, leggings and a simple jumper as she stepped out with her husband just weeks after giving birth to their third child together.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Pan-Arab distributor Mad Solutions is expanding operations by setting up Mad World, a Dubai-based company dedicated to selling Arab movies internationally that will officially launch in Cannes. Touted as Arab cinema‘s first global sales outfit, Mad World segues from Mad Solution’s first foray in the international distribution arena last year with Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s “Goodbye Julia” which they sold widely after it’s splashy launch from Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.