Fatima Albanawi A Jury Member At Malmö Arab Film Festival

Fatima Albanawi A Jury Member At Malmö Arab Film Festival

29 March 2021

Saudi actress Fatima AlBanawi has been selected as a jury member within the Feature Film Competition at the 11th Malmö Arab Film Festival (April 6 -11).

Besides Fatima AlBanawi, the competition’s jury panel also includes screenwriter Tamer Habib, Lebanese TV Presenter Raya Abirached, Palestinian director Najwa Najjar, and Moroccan film researcher Leila Charadi.

Standing as a unique platform for the Nordic and Arab film industries, MAFF aims to screen films from different Arab countries for the foreign communities residing in Sweden that include almost 175 nationalities. The festival attracts thousands of filmmakers annually, including directors, actors, producers, and film enthusiasts from around the world.

 Fatima AlBanawi is a Saudi actress, director and writer. She was selected by Time Magazine as part of its Young Generation Leaders List (2018) for her storytelling ventures that highlight the intimate tales of life in Saudi through her project The Other Story. Fatima received international acclaim for her leading role in Barakah Meets Barakah that screened at Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), and was Saudi Arabia's official submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language.

 Her most recent works in 2020 include the Egyptian series Paranormal that premiered on Netflix, and Shahid’s Saudi drama Al-Shak that she also co-wrote and co-directed.

Earlier in 2020, the Red Sea International Film Festival selected her feature film screenplay Basma for a joint program with Torino Film Lab to develop films. The festival also funded her short film Until We See Light as part of the collective omnibus, Becoming, which brings together films by five Saudi women directors in one feature film.