With Netflix releases like Finding Ola, AlRawabi School for Girls, and Perfect Strangers still ingrained in our minds, Netflix is extending its support to new budding filmmakers in the scene. In partnership with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the giant streaming platform is funding five Arab women filmmakers and producers with a one-time grant.
Netflix
The Netflix Fund for Creative Equity was establised in 2021 with its aim to support underrepresented communities and this new fund, valued at $250,000 (Dhs918,241), is focused to assist the filmmakers’ upcoming projects to life with financial support and training programs.
“The Arab world has a long-standing history of women in entertainment, and we’ve had incredible successes and firsts from the region that we’re all very proud of. But in order to give more people a chance to see their lives reflected on screen, we need more women behind and in front of the camera,” says Nuha El Tayeb, Director Content Acquisitions, Middle East, and Turkey at Netflix.
“The Fund for Creative Equity helps the industry as a whole to have a much more dynamic, interesting, multidimensional representation of women and this is one step in the journey to enabling more women to tell their stories and have new audiences discover their work”.
Who are the Arab women selected for Netflix’s fund program and what are the upcoming films?
Asmae El Moudir, Courtesy of Netflix
Representing the Arab world, the five grantees include Moroccan director and producer of The Mother of All Lies Asmae El Moudir, Lebanese producers Jana Wehbe and Tania Khoury of The Day Vladimir Died and Manity respectively, and Tunisian director and producer of My Name is Clara Sarra Abidi.
Jana Wehbe, Courtesy of Netflix
“More and more Arab women filmmakers are creating moving images that have the power to shed light on the realities of the region. This second collaboration with Neftlix, this time to support women in the field of cinema, complements perfectly AFAC’s mission to promote diversity of voices and narratives”, said Rima Mismar, AFAC’s Executive Director.
Excited is probably an understatement to what we feel rn but we can’t *wait* to see what these rising filmmakers have in store for us.