ALL IS AS IT SHOULD BE by Melike Işık

The coming-of-age story of two young women who reject the traditional values of their families by going to university in İstanbul for self-realisation while trying to find creative ways to be both woman and an individual in a close relationship.

Melike Işık, originally from Turkey and now based in Berlin, is an engineering graduate with a four-year background in marketing. Her passion for storytelling and cinema led her to pursue screenwriting and directing courses at esteemed institutions. Melike's directorial debut, the short film "Mannequin," was featured at the Flying Broom Women's Film Festival in 2018. In 2024, her short film "What Are We Doing Here?" was officially shortlisted for the Chicago Scripts Award. She was selected for Cinephilia Film & TV Development Workroom 2024 with her debut feature film 'All is As It Should Be'.

CAMINO by Anabella Fazio

On a fading Spanish ranch, a mosaic artist and a non-binary cowboy fall into a an all-consuming and law breaking queer romance.

Annabella Fazio is an emerging writer and director.  As an avid traveler who has lived on multiple continents, Annabella is focused on elevating the modern experience of women and AFAB people all over the world and dreams of starting a documentary production company. She has co-written and starred in “Kaleidoscope” premiering at Cannes Court Metrage 2021. Other films she’s worked on have premiered at Oscar Qualifying festivals such as Hollyshorts and Catalina Film Festival. Camino is her first feature film.

MADAMA by Rimah Jabr

In a troubled village near Nablus, a 15-year-old sleepwalks and leaves her family’s home. After a few nights of being lost, she ends up in a settler’s house and is wrongfully charged with terrorism.

Rimah Jabr is a theatre director, playwright, screenwriter, and Ph.D. candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University. She completed a master’s degree in theatre-making from the RITCS in Brussels. She wrote and directed several plays produced in Belgium, Canada, and Palestine. Rimah collaborates with visual artists to create performances. In addition, she co-wrote feature films and shorts. The short film De-Clatter-ers (2023), which was developed with the support of Cinephilia Productions, will be her first film as a filmmaker; it will be presented at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival in October 2023.  

THE BLOOMS by Sama’an Ashrawi

Based on the story of the first Palestinian rock band: A teenager growing up poor in Jerusalem’s Old City in the 1960s has dreams of being a rock‘n roll star, but he soon finds that embracing modernity in an ancient city puts him at odds with tradition.

Sama’an Ashrawi is a Palestinian-American writer, director, and producer from Houston, Texas. In 2016, he made the short film, An Ode To Hannibal Buress, narrated by Chris Rock and featuring Abbi Jacobson & Ilana Glazer, Eric Andre, Drake, and The Roots. MTV president Van Toffler then hired him to help launch Gunpowder & Sky, where he created various series, including Afrofuturism, narrated by Little Simz. In 2024, a series he helped produce, CypHERS, was nominated at Tribeca X. He is currently directing a rodeo documentary with legendary rapper Bun B, featuring Drake, Eve, Erykah Badu, Mannie Fresh, and many more.

THE FEAST by Marwan Imam

A chef attempts to redeem himself through cooking a five course meal, in the hopes that it would restart his career and repair his relationship with his estranged teenage daughter, using the dishes he’s making to tell her his bizarre adventure through the culinary world, to connect with her through the food and the stories.

Marwan Imam is a filmmaker and content creator. He co-Founded Peace Cake, one of Egypt’s leading online video content creation platforms, and is one of the content leads on its creative team, show running one of its main Flagship shows, Emsek Nafsak, alongside Hazem Ragheb. Through Peace Cake he has created online shows for Brands as well, such as Netflix, Yangoplay, Molto, Talabat, Vodafone and Mobil.

WHAT R U by Olivia Khoshatefeh

A free-spirited Persian-American actress finally gets her big break...playing a religious zealot on TV. The controversial role skyrockets her career but creates chaos in her personal life, leading her to question her willingness to compromise to achieve her dreams.

Olivia Khoshatefeh is a Persian-American actor and writer based in NYC. She holds an MFA in acting from Brown University/Trinity Rep. While in school, Olivia wrote and developed several plays, including her piece “These Walls,” which went on to premiere at the "On the Verge" festival in Santa Barbara, CA. She is a member of the SWANA writer’s group in NYC. As an actor, she’s appeared in several recurring television roles, most notably on New Amsterdam (NBC) for five seasons. Other TV credits include: Elsbeth (CBS), Inventing Anna (Netflix), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix), Dickinson (Apple TV), Mr. Robot (USA) and The Blindspot (NBC).

Karen McMullen is the Festival Director/Head of Programming at Urbanworld and Senior Programmer at DOC NYC film festivals. Formally, she was Lead Curator for New Voices in Black Cinema and Head of Programming for the TIDE Film Festival, a Features Programmer at the Tribeca Festival, and a screener at the Sundance Film Festival. She has been a juror at Pan African, Trinidad + Tobago, Thessaloniki International Documentary, Cleveland International, and Bentonville film festivals and on the nominating committees for Gotham Awards, Carey Institute, Black Public Media, Film Independent Spirit Awards, and Cinema Eye Honors. Karen conducts panels and interviews for HBO, Netflix, Apple, the NY African Film Festival, and others. She has editing credits on features and short films and was a professor of film post-production at Long Island University. Karen graduated from Brown University with a concentration in French studies and international relations.

Mohamed Kordofani is a Sudanese aircraft engineer turned filmmaker. His debut feature film, Goodbye Julia, premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section, where it received the Prix de la Liberty. Executive produced by Lupita Nyongo, the film was Sudan's official submission to the Oscars. Goodbye Julia has garnered over 60 international awards, including the Jean Renoir Prize from the French Ministry of Education, which integrated the film into the Image Education curriculum for high school students and cinema apprentices throughout France.

Rula Nasser is an experienced Jordanian producer who started with BBC and Discovery Channel projects in the Middle East. She later joined the Royal Film Commission in 2005. In 2011, she founded "THE IMAGINARIUM FILMS," focusing on local talent. Her Recent films include "The Alleys at Locarno film festival 2021, “The Holy Spider by Ali Abbasi," and Rebel by Adil El Arabi and Bilal Fallah" in 2022. Her latest achievement was Inchallah Wallad, which premiered at the Festival De Cannes in 2023 and was nominated for the 96th Academy Awards (Oscars) in 2024.

Sarah Al-Qatou is a producer & development executive with many experiences championing crowd-pleasing and culturally resonant narratives that elevate diverse perspectives. Currently, she is the Creative Executive at Rideback RISE, where she spearheads the development of the 2025 slate of film & TV projects within RISE's filmmaker fellowship program. Previously, she was a CE at Issa Rae’s banner, HOORAE – where she produced across film, TV, and unscripted. In addition, she worked with filmmaker Lulu Wang under her banner Local Time, supporting development & production of Wang’s stirring limited series, Expats. She has also worked at film financier Big Beach & in acquisitions at Focus Features. A UCLA grad, Sarah firmly believes in the mantra ‘we rise together.’ She has supported programs such as The Academy's Film Accelerator, Palm Springs Shortfest, Sundance & WIF Financing Intensive, and Reel Champions. She is also a former Film Independent Project Involve Fellow.

Theodora Dunlap is an Emmy Award-winning film producer whose work spans a wide range of critically acclaimed and popular films. Her credits include The Independent (Relativity Media), Long Weekend (Sony), Born to Play (ESPN), The Last Shift (Sony, Sundance 2020), and Farewell Amor (IFC, Sundance 2020). She also produced the Emmy and Sundance Award-winning documentary The Sentence (Sundance 2018, HBO). Other notable projects include Hearts Beat Loud (Sundance 2018, Gunpowder & Sky), An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (Sundance 2018, NBCUniversal), The Hero (Sundance 2017, The Orchard), Other People (Sundance 2016, Netflix), Cop Car (Sundance 2015, Focus World), Infinitely Polar Bear (Sundance 2014, Sony Pictures Classics), God’s Pocket (Sundance 2014, IFC), and Robot and Frank (Sundance 2012, Sony).

Tina Gharavi is an artist and filmmaker, celebrated for delivering authentic stories lensed with an impeccably wrought perspective. Born in Tehran just before the Islamic Revolution, she spent her formative years in the UK and the United States, later studying and settling in Paris, France. Having worked in war zones and in guerrilla filmmaking, Gharavi marries her indomitable spirit with a distinct talent to deliver performances and manage beautifully observed stories.  Gharavi’s feature debut, I Am Nasrine (2012), tells the story of an Iranian teenager navigating exile and life as an asylum seeker in the UK. The film was nominated for a BAFTA and praised for its unique and sensitive portrayal of migration and resilience. Beyond feature films, Gharavi has directed documentaries and television projects, including episodes of The Tunnel: Vengeance and Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra. She just recently completed principal photography on her third feature film, an adaptation of a Virginia Woolf rom-com, Night & Day, starring Tim Spall, Jennifer Saunders, and Lily Allen.  In addition to her filmmaking, Gharavi is an educator and mentor, currently serving as an associate professor of film at the University of Newcastle. She founded Bridge + Tunnel Productions, a production company dedicated to telling impactful stories with global resonance. Gharavi is also an academic, teaching filmmaking around the world, and was awarded an MIT Fellowship. She was elected to the BAFTA Academy in 2017 and is represented by Independent Talent in the UK and Gersh in Los Angeles. She is also now permanently based in Paris as well as the UK, her two home bases.

Darine Hotait is a writer and director. Named on Disney’s 2022 list of Directors on the Rise, Darine Hotait’s films can be seen on Sundance Channel, The New Yorker, AMC Networks, BBC, and at Oscar-qualifying international film festivals. Her work has received the support of the New York Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Arab Fund for Art & Culture, and the Sundance Institute. Darine has worked as a script consultant with hundreds of filmmakers and as a consultant for film institutions and organizations such as The Sundance Institute, the New York Foundation for The Arts IAP, Films Femmes Francophones Méditerranée, Students For Justice, and Women of Color Filmmakers. She is the founder of New York-based Cinephilia Productions, a film incubator championing the next generation of Arab and African filmmakers. Cinephilia incubated and developed films such as "You Will Die at Twenty" (Venice), "Goodbye Julia" (Cannes), "Their Algeria" (Visions Du Reel), and "Snow and The Bear" (Toronto), among others. 

Brad Saunders is a screenwriter, screenwriting teacher, film director, playwright, published novelist, short story writer, and freelance journalist with an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His movie, The Lounge People, played in theaters internationally and on Comedy Central and the Starz Network, and he currently has screenplays optioned and in development on two continents. His play, Detective Nicky Carruthers is Dead, garnered a national playwriting award from the University of Arkansas and was produced at the Powerhouse Theater in Los Angeles. The Dorchester County Sheriff Department’s Annual Ball was a semi-finalist at the Inner City Cultural Center’s theater competition in Los Angeles and was produced at the Missing Children Theater, starring Adrienne Shelly, in New York. He developed and taught screenwriting classes at both the graduate and undergraduate level at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for twenty-three years. Currently, he works online for Film Connection’s mentor program and as a screenwriting teacher at Pasadena City College.