Neuigkeiten

Exclusive: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabry, star of Oscar-nominated hybrid doc Four Daughters and Netflix hit show Finding Ola, has signed with Cairo-based talent management and promotional agency Mad Celebrity.

The company will manage and promote the star across the Middle East and North Africa, while CAA, which signed Sabry in 2023, continues to represent her internationally as her talent agent.

Sabry first became a household name across the Arab world with the 2010 Egyptian TV classic Ayza Atgawez, in the role of a young pharmacist desperate to get married before she turns 30. She has since rebooted the character for Netflix in the hit show Finding Ola.

The star joins a growing list of internationally recognized talents from the Arab world on the Mad Celebrity books, including megastar Yousra, the Emmy-nominated Menna Shalaby (Nawara), British Lebanese actress Razane Jammal (The Sandman) and the trail-blazing Saudi artist Fatima Al Banawi (Basma).

Sabry, who has...

Rising Egyptian star Yasmina El-Abd, whose acting career has been on a roll since she was 12, stands as testimony to the fact that female empowerment is becoming a major theme in the Arab world’s film and TV output.

Born in Switzerland to an Egyptian family, El-Abd took acting classes in London and landed her first acting job in the well-received short “The Shadow of Cairo” playing a 12-year-old named Maya who seeks vengeance for her mothers’ death by becoming a superhero of sorts who chases down sexual harassers in Cairo.

A slew of roles have followed, including in powerful Arab patriarchy drama “Daughters of Abdul-Rahman”; as well as in HBO Max kids series “Theodosia,” where El-Abd is the only Egyptian cast member and plays one of the leads, Princess Safiya; the groundbreaking Arabic-language musical feature “Sukkar,” and, of course hit Netflix series “Finding Ola” – the second season of which...

The best part about Finding Ola is definitely the humor. One cannot help but fall in love with Ola—her exaggerated expressions and her fun banter. The seamless blend of the social commentary with the lighthearted humor that one would typically expect from a rom-com is what makes the series stand out. Finding Ola has stuck to its visual style in the second season. You cannot help but be reminded of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag every time Ola breaks the fourth wall. Perhaps it is because both shows belong to the same genre, or simply because Fleabag has set the standard too high.

The first season was more about Ola rediscovering herself as she tried to navigate her life as a recently divorced single woman. From successfully starting a business with her best friend, to breaking norms and taking risks, Ola’s journey of self-discovery was fun-filled yet profound. When it came to love,...

Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabri is moving the cultural needle in the Middle East when it comes to playing female characters.

Sabri is the star of “Moftaraq Toroq,” the Arabic adaptation of “The Good Wife” that launched in June to top ratings across the Middle East on leading regional network Mbc’s Shahid premium streamer.

In the show, Sabri plays Amira, who after dedicating 15 years of her life to being the wife of a prominent politician and a mother, returns to the legal profession in the wake of her husband’s sex scandal. Besides her “The Good Wife” role, Sabri is also the star of Netflix’s hit Arabic original “Finding Ola,” in which she plays a Cairo divorcee who happily embarks on a journey of self-discovery. The second season of “Finding Ola” is expected to drop later this year.

Below, Sabri speaks to Variety about navigating the “tricky” cultural complexities of transposing the U.

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.

Licensed by Paramount Global Content Distribution, the Arabic “Good Wife” adaptation, which is titled “Moftaraq Toroq,” is produced by Dubai-based Charisma Group.

Sabri, who in Netflix Arabic original “Finding Ola” played a happy divorcee who embarks on a journey of self-discovery after her divorce, is a top Arab world draw.

Touted by Mbc in a statement as “ground-breaking milestone” in Egyptian long-form TV, the high-end Arabic “Good Wife” adaptation is set to launch on Mbc’s Shahid premium streamer on June 2.

A previous Indian adaptation of the multiple Emmy-winning CBS series titled “The Trial” launched on Disney+ Hotstar last year.

The Arab Cinema Center has published this year's “Golden 101”, its annual list of the 101 most influential figures in Arab cinema in its 22nd edition of Arab Cinema Magazine, which is being circulated at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival and can be accessed on the Marché du Film website.

Celebrating individuals and institutions who have made the most significant impact on the Arab film industry over the past twelve months, this year's Golden 101 comprises of 13 directors, 16 producers, 14 actors, five crew members, 18 distributors from 12 institutions, 12 executives from 10 governmental cinema institutions, 11 executives from seven video-on-demand platforms, 11 representatives from seven festivals, and seven executives from film financing institutions.

Commenting on this year's Golden 101 list, Colin Brown, Mad Solutions' Managing Partner for International Operations said; “These are the artists, artisans, and power brokers who have distinguished themselves this past year – and the rest of the world should pay attention to them if...

Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters lead the nominations for the 8th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Both features picked up seven nominations apiece for the awards, focused on Arab films that were produced and premiered outside of the Arab world in 2023. Overseen and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), it was voted on by 209 critics from 72 countries and the winners will be announced during Cannes on May 18.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

This year’s nominees range from Sudan,...

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 a real-life Tunisian mother who lost two of her daughters to Isis after they were radicalized by a local preacher, world premiered in Competition in Cannes last year.

The film won Cannes’ Golden Eye for Best Documentary and also went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Kordofani’s Khartoum-set drama Goodbye Julia was also at Cannes in 2023, making history as the first Sudanese film to play in the festival across its 76 editions, with a debut in Un Certain Regard. It represented Sudan at in the 2023-24 Oscar race but was not nominated.

Set against the backdrop of the 2011 South Sudan Independence referendum,...

Kaouther Ben Hania will make history for her native Tunisia on Sunday with its first Academy Award if her hotly tipped nominated work Four Daughters triumphs in the Best Documentary category on Sunday.

The director belongs to a generation of Tunisian filmmakers who emerged in the wake of their country’s so-called Jasmine Revolution, which ousted dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in early 2011.

Habib Attia, who is one of the original producers on Four Daughters, has been an integral part of this movement too.

The Tunis-based producer has cinema in his blood as the son of late producer Ahmed Bahaeddine Attia, whose credits included Moufida Tlatli’s 1994 breakout The Silences of the Palace, starring Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabry in her first major big screen role.

On finishing his high school studies, Attia headed to his mother’s native Italy to study engineering in Milan, rather than immediately following in his father’s footsteps.

Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa) won Best Documentary at the César Awards, France’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.

The ceremony, which crowned Anatomy of a Fall as Best Film, took place Friday night at the Olympia Theater in Paris. The win for Four Daughters comes in the midst of final Oscar voting, which runs until 5 p.m. Pt on Tuesday.

As she accepted the award, Tunisian-born Ben Hania turned her attention to the situation in Gaza, which Israel invaded after the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 men, women and children and in which Hamas seized more than 240 hostages (roughly a quarter of the hostages are believed dead). The Ministry of Health in Gaza says more than 10,000 Palestinian children have been killed since the start of Israel’s bombing and ground campaign in Gaza.

Director Kaouther Ben Hania and producer...

It’s been a busy week for Oscar-nominated documentary filmmakers Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. On Monday, Alberdi, director of The Eternal Memory, and Ben Hania, director of Four Daughters, joined fellow nominees at the glittering Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton. Today, they sit down with Deadline for the latest edition of our Doc Talk podcast.

In her film, Alberdi documents the relationship between two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and journalism – Paulina Urrutia and Augusto Góngora – a love story that endured even as Augusto coped with advancing Alzheimer’s disease. The director explains why she sees The Eternal Memory as “an answer” to her previous film The Mole Agent, which earned Alberdi the first Oscar nomination of her career..

In Four Daughters, Ben Hania explores a story from her native Tunisia — the case of a woman named Olfa who raised four girls, only to see the two eldest fall under the sway of radical Islamist ideology and join Isis. The director tells us why she made the decision to incorporate actors into her film to play Olfa and her two oldest daughters in re-creations. She also talks about why Hind Sabri, a star of Arab cinema who took on the role of Olfa, felt afraid of the woman she was portraying. And Ben Hania explains why a male actor she hired walked off the set during one particularly intense scene.

This marks a return trip to the Academy Awards for Ben Hania as well as Alberdi. They were both nominated in 2021 – Alberdi for Documentary Feature and Ben Hania in International Feature for her narrative feature The Man Who Sold His Skin.

In the new episode of Doc Talk, we also revisit our interview from last fall with Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President. And the titular Bobi Wine – the Ugandan pop star turned politician — joins us too – explaining what he wishes the filmmakers had left out of the documentary.

That’s on Doc Talk, the podcast co-hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s documentary editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios, presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.

2023 was a year of great documentaries. While it stands as its own medium of film entirely, in a comparative sense, it rose above any other cinematic genre of the year thanks to titles like Menus Plaisir — Les Troisgros, A Still Small Voice, Subject, The Mission, Israelism, Carpet Cowboys, Holy Frit, and many more. Four Daughters was undeniably one of the most emotionally powerful and aesthetically provocative of the bunch, though. It was simply one of the best films of 2023.

Four Daughters explores the life of one Tunisian family through interviews and reenactments, keeping things contained largely within one building. And yet, it's extraordinarily dynamic due to director Kaouther Ben Hania's fluid and hypnotic methods, unbelievably intimate cinematography from Farouk Laâridh, and the rich editing of Qutaiba Barhamji. A tragedy took two of Olfa Hamrouni's daughters away from her and her family. With them absent, Ben Hania casts two...

Oscar documentary branch voters can’t be accused of parochialism. They ventured far and wide to select their shortlist of feature documentaries for 2023, tapping films from countries as varied as a U.N. roll call: Ukraine, Uganda, Poland, Denmark, Tunisia, Canada and the United States.

To Kill a Tiger, one of the 15 finalists, unfolds in a village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Nisha Pahuja, who was born in India and raised in Canada, directed the film about a humble couple who fight for justice after their 13-year-old daughter is sexually assaulted by three men. Before the shortlist was announced, Pahuja wondered whether doc branch members would embrace her documentary. “It’s a Canadian film, but it’s an Indian story,” she said, “and it’s subtitled.”

Pahuja needn’t have worried. Neither subtitles nor remote settings deter today’s documentary branch, whose membership is far less insular than it used to be.

Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa) director Kaouther Ben Hania on Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui, Ichrak Matar, Nour Karoui, and Hind Sabri: “I already have a rich gallery of female characters. So to simplify and have the focus on the female characters, I thought that the men can be played by one actor (Majd Mastoura) and I wanted to experiment with this idea.”

In the second instalment with Kaouther Ben Hania on Tunisia’s now Best International Feature Film and Documentary Oscar shortlisted Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa) we discussed her three natural-born storytellers (Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters Eya Chikhaoui and Tayssir Chikhaoui), experimenting with one actor (Majd Mastoura) portraying multiple male characters, loving clichés, and colours. Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin had received a Best International Film Oscar nomination in 2021 and her intense and unwavering Beauty And The Dogs (Aala Kaf Ifrit...

Original TV series based on Arab and Muslim characters are beginning to go global, a Netflix executive said Saturday at the Red Sea Film Festival.

Ahmed Sharkawi, director of Arab content, Netflix Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that a new, distinctive voice was emerging from the region.

“Recently, a friend called me and her mother-in-law – who is 100% American – was recommending one of our Arab series [“Finding Ola,” starring Hind Sabri] to all her friends,” he said at a panel about writing for television.

“This wave [of Arab and Muslim stories] is beginning; the U.S. audience is becoming open to watching stories that are outside of the U.S. experience.”

The region was rich in a tradition of storytelling that meant there were many original scripts being written, he said.

“There are so many stories in this region that have not been told before, so [our job is] about harvesting that intellectual property.”

“This is a culture...

As the voting window for the Oscar shortlists approaches, Academy members are considering Kaouther Ben Hania’s film Four Daughters in not one, but two categories: Best Documentary Film and Best International Feature.

In August, Tunisia selected Ben Hania’s documentary as its official entry for International Film, the third time the director has been chosen for that honor, following 2017’s Beauty and the Dogs and 2020’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, which went on to earn an Oscar nomination. Both of those earlier films were narrative dramas, and there are dramatic elements in Four Daughters: Ben Hania enlisted three actresses to participate in her documentary.

Olfa Hamrouni, protagonist of ‘Four Daughters,’ at the Cannes Film Festival.

Four Daughters tells the story of Olfa, a working-class Tunisian woman who raised four girls: Ghofrane, Rahma, Eya, and Tayssir. After the Arab Spring led to the ouster of Tunisia’s...

Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first homegrown feature to be shown there.

Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla from A24 is playing New York and Los Angeles this weekend including sold out Q&a’s with the director and star Cailee Spaeny, Best Actress winner at the Venice Film Festival where Priscilla premiered, see Deadline review. Jacob Elordi stars as Elvis.

The story of the singer’s romantic partner and only wife told from her perspective is based on the book Elvis And Me by Priscilla Presley following her early years as a teenage army brat stationed in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland. Rolls out nationwide next week.

Kaouther Ben Hania on Tunisia’s Oscar submission Four Daughters (Les Filles d'Olfa): “It’s a movie about real people but it’s also a reality that doesn’t exist outside this movie.”

Kaouther Ben Hania in Four Daughters tells the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters. Eya Chikhaoui and Tayssir Chikhaoui, the two youngest, are with their mother, while the two oldest Ghofrane Chikaoui and Rahma Chikhaoui are imprisoned in Libya for terrorism charges. In the film they are portrayed by actors Ichrak Matar and Nour Karoui respectively, and the mother finds herself doubled as well, by actress Hind Sabri, for scenes that, as the director explains in the hybrid documentary, might be too upsetting for Olfa to relive. Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin had received a Best International Film Oscar nomination in 2021 and her intense and unwavering Beauty And The Dogs.

‘We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity’

Riz Ahmed, Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart, Cherien Dabis and Rooney Mara are among Hollywood and entertainment celebrities urging US president Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.

Andrew Garfield, Jessica Chastain, James Schamus, Joaquin Phoenix, Mahershala Ali, Jon Stewart, and Dua Lipa have also added their names to an open letter on Friday urging Biden and all world leaders to call for “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost”.

It is estimated that more than 5,000 Palestinians and Israelis...

A long list of big-name actors released a letter today directed to President Biden asking him to call for a cease fire in Gaza and Israel.

Among the signatories are Mark Ruffalo, Jessica Chastian, Cate Blanchett, Quinta Brunson, Rosario Dawson, Oscar Isaac, Joaquin Phoenix, Alyssa Milano, Jon Stewart and many more. The list includes prominent Jewish, Muslim and Christian actors

The full text of the letter is below.

Dear President Biden,

We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.

We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred,...

Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation recently scored at the local box office, is being feted with a career award by the El Gouna Film Festival.

The Egyptian fest, running Oct. 13-20 in the Red Sea resort roughly 250 miles south of Cairo, is also paying tribute to the Sudanese Film Group, a groundbreaking collective of filmmakers, and is planning an homage to late great British-French icon Jane Birkin.

Hamed (pictured above) broke out internationally in 2006 with his bold adaptation of Alaa Aswany’s bestselling novel “The Yacoubian Building” that became a game-changer in Egytian cinema due to the way it depicted homosexuality, Islamic fundamentalism and government corruption. After “Yacoubian” become a local hit and travelled widely Hamed scored again big time with “The Blue Elephant,” a thriller with supernatural elements and its sequel “The Blue Elephant 2” that more...

Welcome to International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week, we talk to Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabry, who walks us through the second season of her hit Netflix show Finding Ola, signing with CAA as well as the future of filmmaking in Egypt.

Tunisian-Egyptian star Hend Sabry is talking to Deadline from the set of Season 2 of her hit Netflix show Finding Ola.

“I can’t disclose where we’re filming, only that we’re in production,” she says over a WhatsApp video call, talking between shots in full costume.

One certainty is that the titular heroine will be leaving her home city of Cairo and Egypt for at least part of the upcoming new season.

The show is a reboot of 2010 Egyptian TV classic Ayza Atgawez, starring Sabry as a middle-class,...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Screen is profiling every submission for best international feature at the 96th Academy Awards.

Entries for the 2024 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 96th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 10, 2024 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between December 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023. The deadline...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival has cancelled its swanky Women in Cinema gala event at the upcoming Venice Film Festival in response to the ongoing actors’ strike.

Red Sea CEO Mohammed Al Turki announced the move on his Instagram account on Monday.

“Due to the actors’ strike and in solidarity with the actors. We are unable to proceed with the Women in Cinema event,” he wrote.

Venice, running from August 30 to September 9, is one of the first big film events to feel the heat of the actors’ strike, with original opening film Challengers pulled after its announcement due to the fact its key cast, topped by Zendaya, would be unlikely to attend.

Festival head Alberto Barbera has pulled together an impressive line-up nonetheless but it remains to be seen how much talent will be swilling around the Lido with little end in sight for the actors’ strike which began mid-July.

The El Gouna Film Festival (Gff) will honor Egyptian director Marwan Hamed with a life Career Achievement Award at its upcoming sixth edition, running from October 6 to 12.

It marks the first element of the program to be announced as the Egyptian Red Sea festival returns this year following a one year hiatus in 2022.

Hamed studied film at the Higher Institute of Cinema in Cairo. His first short Li Li, adapted from a short story by Yusuf Idris, played at numerous festivals, winning the Audience Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Golden Award at the Carthage Film Festival.

He broke out with his 2006 first feature The Yacoubian Building, adapted from Alaa Al-Aswany’s best-selling novel, which captures Egyptian society in the 1990s and the consequences of its extremes of wealth and poverty.

Featuring an ensemble cast, including Egyptian icons Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif and Yousra alongside then...

Further international deals announced by The Party Film Sales.

Kino Lorber has acquired US rights to Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters which won the L’Oeil d’Or Award for best documentary in Cannes last month.

‘Four Daughters’: Cannes Review

The film distributor plans an ongoing international festival circuit run prior to a theatrical release in autumn, followed by a digital and home video release.

The sole Arab film in Competition on the Croisette, Four Daughters explores rebellion, memory, and reconstructs the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni and her daughters as it unpacks a complex family history...

Kino Lorber has acquired the U.S. rights to Tunisian director and Oscar nominee Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, which shared the L’Oeil d’Or Award for best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Cannes competition entry, which uses professional actors to help re-enact one family’s devastating experience of loss, will open theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on major platforms.

“Ben Hania casts accomplished actors to perform alongside her real-life documentary subjects, adding a layer of complexity that gives agency to her collaborators and mines truth from the space it occupies between fact and memory. We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this groundbreaking documentary to U.S. audiences this fall,” Wendy Lidell, senior vp theatrical distribution and acquisitions at Kino Lorber, said Thursday in a statement.

Four Daughters is written and directed by Ben Hania, whose 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin...

Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. rights to “Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania’s film which competed at the Cannes Film Festival.

The competition’s sole Arab film, “Four Daughters” mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis. It won L’Oeil d’or or “Golden Eye” Award at Cannes for best documentary and is now set to roll off into the international festival circuit. Kino Lorber plans to release it theatrically this fall, followed by a digital and home video release on all major platforms.

The New York-based distribution company has high hopes for “Four Daughters” during the next awards season. Last year’s L’Oeil d’Or winner, “All That Breathes,” went on to earn an Oscar nomination for best documentary. Ben Hania previously earned an Oscar nomination with her 2020 film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” in the international feature film category.

Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s powerful drama “Four Daughters” which mixes documentary and fiction to tell the story of a Tunisian mother whose two elder daughters joined Isis is scoring a slew of sales following its well-received Cannes competition premiere.

French company The Party Films Sales has sealed deals on “Four Daughters” for: Benelux (Cineart); Spain (Caramel Films); Italy (I Wonder); Switzerland (Trigon); Sweden (Triart); Denmark (Camera Film); Norway (Arthaus); Finland (Cinemanse); Poland (New Horizons); Greece (Ama Films); former Yougoslavia (Discovery) and Turkey (Bir Film).

Rights to the film for multiple other territories are under negotiations, the company said.

Ben Hania – whose previous works comprise “Beauty and the Dogs” and “The Man Who Sold His Skin” – in “Four Daughters” delves into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.

It’s easy to get trapped in circuitous arguments surrounding documentary ethics at the best of times, but Kaouther Ben Hania’s metafictional “Four Daughters” — involving young children, abuse, trauma and re-enactments — appears to chart these knotty waters as a barefaced challenge. This Tunisian entry into Cannes’ Official Competition is a bold behemoth of an undertaking, which is veiled, unveiled and then re-veiled with endless angles and perspectives; it’s a veritable snakepit of uneasy decisions that grips you with its novel approach to so-called truth-telling before lapsing into something a little more conventional. Far from a gamble made in the service of naturalism, this heightened and strange piece of fiction re-enactment exposes itself for critique in a way that you almost have to respect. For its sins, it seems to —just about— succeed.

“Four Daughters” orbits the trauma of a Tunisian woman named Olfa and her youngest daughters, Tayssir and Eya.

Kaouther Ben Hania, the Oscar-nominated director of “The Man Who Sold His Skin” whose latest film “Four Daughters” is competing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will next direct “Mimesis,” an epic love story set in Tunisia.

While the plot is under wraps, the story is set in two different periods, the 1990s and the 1940s, paying tribute to cinema and Arab-Muslim cultural heritage. It’s being produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha at Tanit Films, who produced Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters” and her previous film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” which world premiered at Venice where it won best actor for Yahya Mahayni and was nominated for best international film at the Oscars in 2021.

Mahayn starred in the film as a Syrian refugee who accepts to have a large Schengen visa, the document he desperately needs to enter Europe, tattooed on his back by a famous artist, thus...

Actors and real people re-enact the past to understand why two daughters left Tunisia to fight for Is in Syria, leaving the rest of the family behind

There is real emotional warmth and human sympathy in this otherwise somewhat flawed film, a docudrama experiment in getting actors to play some of the real people in a tragic news story from Tunisia. Olfa Hamrouni, a divorced woman from the coastal town of Sousse, made the headlines seven years ago when two of her four daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, broke her and their sisters’ hearts by vanishing from the country to become fighters and wives for Islamic State in Syria. Now director Kaouther Ben Hania re-enacts key parts of Olfa’s family life, featuring the remaining sisters Eya and Tayssir playing themselves, but performers playing the vanished fugitives: Ichraq Matar is Ghofrane and Nour Karoui is Rahma.

Despite the fact that she hasn’t vanished,...

Cannes, France – 18 May 2023 – In celebration of female voices in film, the Red Sea International Film Festival (RedSeaIFF) and Vanity Fair Europe hosted the Women's Stories Gala event this evening, shining a light on the achievements of women both on and behind the camera who are helping shape the film industry and inspire a new generation of talent in Saudi Arabia, Africa, and India.

During the event held alongside the 76th Cannes Film Festival at the spectacular Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, the RedSeaIFF and Vanity Fair Europe honoured six women making significant strides, breaking down barriers and paving the way for future generations.

They include; Fatima AlBanawi – Saudi actor, director and writer who received international acclaim for her leading role in Barakah Meets Barakah (2016) and broke cinema records with her latest AlHamour (2023). She has played an array of roles ranging from the road-trip thriller Route 10, family drama Champions,...

Using actors to bring to life story elements within documentary film is becoming a more widespread practice, if one that’s still viewed with skepticism by some purists.

The films of Robert Greene spring to mind – Kate Plays Christine and Procession, for instance – and Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet. Errol Morris cast Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Blake Nelson, Bob Balaban and other stars to dramatize extended sequences in Wormwood, and famously used actors in the critical murder scene reenactment in the The Thin Blue Line.

The technique achieves a new level of artistry and organic relevance in Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa), which premiered tonight in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian director cast actresses to play Olfa Hamrouni and her two eldest daughters, Rahma and Ghofrane, who as teenagers abruptly disappeared from the family home after becoming attached to radical Islamist ideology. Only...

Kaouther Ben Hania’s heartbreaking Four Daughters (Les filles d’Olfa) pulls you in with a question: Who is Olfa Hamrouni?

She rose to international fame in 2016 when she criticized the Tunisian government for not preventing her daughters from joining the Islamic State in Libya. In interviews from those years, Hamrouni is a bereaved mother. Her voice aches with pain as she recounts the loss of her two eldest daughters, and it shakes with anger when she speaks of the government’s listless response.

The Olfa of Ben Hania’s docu-fiction strikes a more relaxed pose. She has traded her pink hijabs for a black scarf, tightly woven around her head. She’s freer with her laughs and more pointed with her asides. Grief still undergirds her anecdotes, but so does a palpable willingness to share. She eagerly explains how she believes a movie about her life will help spread an...

Late on in Kaouther Ben Hania’s compelling, ambitious hybrid “Four Daughters,” Olfa Hamrouni — the film’s focus, its fixation and its most charismatically contradictory character — strokes a purring, heavily pregnant ginger cat. Sometimes, she tells us, a cat will be so scared for her babies that she eats them. It’s Olfa’s covert acknowledgement that her own misguided protective urge, forged by her hard history with men and mother alike, might have contributed to her life’s great, rupturing tragedy: when, in 2015, the elder two of her four girls ran away to join Isis. But it also recalls one of her earlier to-camera segments, when she described her daughters, as though shielding herself from the pain of the real with the language of fable, as having been “devoured by the wolf.” So which is it: Were Ghofran and Rahma, 16 and 15 at the time of their disappearance, eaten up...

Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania is back in Cannes with “Four Daughters” a powerful drama that mixes documentary and fiction to delve into the story of Tunisia’s Olfa Hamrouni who rose to international prominence in April 2016 when she publicized the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who had left Tunisia to fight with Isis.

The film, which is the only Arab entry in competition, stars Egyptian-Tunisian star Hend Sabri in the lead role of an actor who must play Hamrouni and gets coaching from the real Olfa on how to prepare for the role. Ben Hania spoke to Variety about the bold choice she made.

What drew you to want to dig deep into Olfa’s story?

So it was in 2016, and there was media interest around this story and a lot of similar stories. And I heard the mother giving an interview on the radio. The way she was talking,...

Exclusive: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabry has signed with CAA for representation.

Sabry is among the most respected contemporary actresses from North Africa, with a career spanning more than 50 projects in film, TV and radio.

She will next be seen in Kaouther Ben Hania’s new film Four Daughters, which has been selected to premiere as an official selection at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Sabry began her acting career aged 14 in the 1994 Tunisian movie Samt Al Qosour (Silences Of The Palace), and won her first Best Actress Award from the Carthage Film Festival at the age of 15.

Since then, she has won more than 30 awards, including prizes for her performance in the 2019 Tunisian film Noura’s Dream which played at Cannes, Carthage, and El Gouna.

Among Sabry’s films to have achieved commercial success are Blue Elephant 2 and Kira And El Gin, both of which broke Egyptian box office records on release.

The lineup for the 76th installment of the Cannes Film Festival has finally been announced. Nineteen films will be competing to take home the prestigious Palme d’Or, including a record six films helmed by women. The festival will be taking place in the French Riviera from May 16 to May 27. This year’s jury will be headed by Ruben Östlund, who won his second Palme d’Or last year for “Triangle of Sadness.”

Knowing a filmmaker’s previous track record at Cannes can sometimes help give an idea as to who might be in the best position to claim the Palme. For instance, five of this year’s entries come from directors who have previously won the Palme. Another five are from auteurs who have had previous films win a prize in the main competition other than the Palme. Another five are from directors having their first film screen in the main competition.

Click here to read the full article.

The global television scene offered up an embarrassment of riches this year, with a seemingly endless supply of phenomenal dramas, comedies and crime procedurals as good as, or often better, than the best on offer Stateside.

The international expansion of Netflix, Amazon, AppleTV+ and others has meant many global talents now have the financial means to make their dream originals, while series from more traditional local broadcasters have access to global platforms, and a worldwide audience, on a scale never seen before.

Ahead of the winter break, The Hollywood Reporter continues its holiday tradition in picking out the best international series to binge-watch over the holiday season. Our favorite 2022 series stocking stuffers include a feminist spy thriller from Germany, a Korean take on a British romantic classic and a deep dive into the French hip-hop scene of the 1980s. (Check out our list...

In what is being hailed as a milestone, Egyptian director Mohamed Diab recently became the first Arab helmer to direct a Marvel project when he took the reins of the limited series “Moon Knight,” while Netflix launched its latest Arab original show, “Finding Ola,” toplining Cairo-based Tunisian star Hend Sabry. Sabry plays a happy divorcee who embarks on a journey of self-discovery, reflecting changing female roles in the region and the streamer’s thematically groundbreaking Middle East strategy.

Meanwhile, Egyptian producer Mohammed Hefzy, whose production company Film Clinic was behind Netflix’s first Egyptian original skein, “Paranormal,” became a member of the 2022 Intl. Emmy Awards jury.

Hefzy points out that “Moon Knight” “opens doors for other Arab directors in the international TV arena” and notes that Marvel has also hired other behind-the-camera Egyptian talents such as editor Ahmed Hafez and composer Hesham Nazih. But still, it’s a Hollywood show.

Netflix has previewed a selection of upcoming films and shows aimed at the Arab world and hailing from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Egypt, and Jordan.

The global platform has been steadily making inroads into the Middle East and North Africa since 2015, in the face of fierce competition from local players such as Mbc’s Shahid VIP and Starzplay.

The new productions, mainly due to launch in 2023, include Saudi Arabian feature Alkhallat+, a satirical suspense film based on the hit online show Alkhallat, which was first released in 2017 and received more than 1.5 billion views across YouTube and social media.

The feature is one of the first productions to come down the pipeline under an eight-picture deal with burgeoning Saudi Arabian studio Telfaz11, signed in November 2020.

“The film will feature four exciting comeback stories of social deception and trickery in four unlikely places, bringing the best of this beloved Saudi show to life,...

Netflix is launching an incubator to help foster female screenwriters in Egypt.

The U.S. streaming giant has partnered with Sard, a dedicated hub for screenwriters in the Arab world on a writing program called Because She Created.

Its stated goal is training twenty women from outside Cairo and to “expose untapped talent to the creative tools and industry insight needed to advance their creative and professional development,” Netflix said in a statement.

The program is financed by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity.

Sard was founded by award-winning writer Mariam Naoum in 2016 as a space for aspiring screenwriters to improve their writing skills and unleash their creative potential.

Naoum is a prominent Egyptian screenwriter and social activist whose credits include Kamla Abou Zekry’s Cairo-set ensemble film “One/Zero”; and the TV series “A Girl named Zat,” “Heat Wave” and “The Women’s Prison,” a scathing exploration of the Egyptian prison system,...

Jury

Italy’s Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the Oscar, BAFTA and Cannes winning film “Cinema Paradiso,” will preside over the features competition jury at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival (Dec. 6-15). Tornatore’s latest documentary, “Ennio,” about revered composer Ennio Morricone, which bowed at Venice, will have its Arab premiere at the festival out-of-competition in the International Spectacular strand.

Joining Tornatore on the jury are Tunisian actor Hend Sabry (“The Blue Elephant 2”) Palestinian-American director, writer, actor and producer Cherien Dabis (“Amreeka”), Morelia International Film Festival director Daniela Michel and Saudi filmmaker Abdulaziz Alshlahei (“Zero Distance”).

The Red Sea shorts competition jury will be led by Egypt’s Marwan Hamed, director of Tribeca winner “The Yacoubian Building”) who will be joined by Saudi Arabian actor and director Ahd Kamel (“Wadjda”) and Finnish-Somali director and writer Khadar Ayderus (“The Gravedigger’s Wife”).

Trailer

Universal Pictures has released a trailer for “Redeeming Love,...

“The Alleys,” “The Legend of Zeineb and Noah” and “I Can Hear Your Voice… Still” were the big winners of the Cairo Film Connection, the co-production platform of the Cairo International Film Festival.

“The Alleys,” the directorial debut from the Oscar-nominated “Theeb” producer Bassel Ghandour, was awarded the $10,000 Badyã Award and $10,000 New Century Productions Prize.

Currently in post-production, “The Alleys” is a Jordan, Egyptian, French and Saudi co-production about a charming hustler who pretends to be a white-collar career man in a gossip-ridden, violent neighborhood.

The jury, comprising Jordanian actor and producer Saba Mubarak, Moroccan producer Lamia Chraibi, and Egyptian filmmaker Abubakr Shawky, was slated to give out 21 awards from 18 different companies, but they added three more to the list during the ceremony.

“The Legend of Zeineb and Noah” by acclaimed Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah, whose 2012 film “After the Battle” competed for the Palme d’Or, took home five of...

Egyptian filmmaker Marwan Hamed, the director of “The Yacoubian Building,” “The Blue Elephant” and “The Blue Elephant 2,” which last year became the highest-grossing Egyptian film in history, is shooting “Kira and El Gen,” based on Ahmed Mourad’s book “1919,” about Egyptian resistance to British occupation. He spoke to Variety about the project at the Cairo Film Festival.

Produced by Ahmed Badawy, managing director of Tamer Morsi’s Synergy Films, the budget is north of $10 million, making it the most expensive film in Egyptian cinema history. The film stars some of the biggest names in Arab cinema, including Karim Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Ezz, Hind Sabri and Ahmad Malek. British actor Sam Hazeldine also appears.

Hamed says that the opening of cinemas in Saudi Arabia with its sizeable box-office potential has created a landscape where Arab financiers can plan for better returns on films. “What actually encouraged such an investment...

Arab Cinema Center Reveals Winners of 4th Critics Awards For Arab FilmsWithin the Virtual Cannes Marché du FilmThrough a virtual ceremony through Zoom platform, the Arab Cinema Center (Acc) revealed the winners of the fourth edition of its Critics Awards for Arab Films during the Virtual Marché du Film. The award is submitted based on the voting of a jury of 141 members from across 57 countries. The critics have viewed Arab feature and documentary films produced in 2019 on Festival Scope.

To watch the award ceremony check the following link: https://youtu.be/qz1m0KElw5I

For the first time in the history of Arab cinema, the jury committee brings together 141 of the most prominent Arab and international film critics from 57 countries from all over the world this year.

Furthermore, the Arab Cinema Center announced that American film critic Deborah Young is the newly assigned Manager of the Critics’ Awards for Arab Films.