Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — In cooperation with the Arab Fund for Culture and Arts (AFAC), Netflix announced the names of the five Arab directors and producers who received a one-time cash grant to support their films.

Launched in 2021, the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity aims to create more opportunities for talents in underrepresented communities within the entertainment sector and to bridge the skills gap by providing training programs.

In the Arab world, the Fund offers a grant of up to $250,000 aiming to provide financial support to Arab women directors.

Nuha El-Tayeb, Director of Content Acquisition for the Middle East and Turkey at Netflix, said: “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. 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.”

AFAC offers annually two grant programs to support filmmakers in the fields of documentaries and feature films. Netflix selected five women AFAC grantees for the year 2021 to receive support for their individual projects.

Rima Mismar, Executive Director of AFAC, stated: "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.”

The film "White Lie" by Moroccan director and producer Asmae El Moudir was selected in the non-fiction category. While Lebanese producers Diala Kachmar (From the Other Shore), Jana Wehbe (The Day Vladimir Died) and Tania Khoury (Manity) presented three exceptional novels. Also, Tunisian director and producer Sarra Abidiwill now have the opportunity to present her novel (My Name is Clara) on screen.

Over the years, Netflix has been keen to obtain exceptional business licenses for women creators and steadily working more with Arab storytellers to highlight their experiences.

Investing in the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity is another way to amplify the voice of women while bringing fresh and original content to audiences across the region.