DUBAI: US streaming giant Netflix is partnering with Lebanon’s Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) to grant five female Arab filmmakers $250,000 to bring their work to life.
The one-off award will be delivered through the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, which was set up in 2021.
The initiative aims to create opportunities for underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry and increase the equality of women both on and off screen.
The five women shortlisted for the grant are Moroccan director Asmae El-Moudir with the documentary “The Mother of All Lies,” Tunisian creative Sarra Abidi with her film “My Name Is Clara,” and Lebanese filmmakers Diala Kachmar with “From the Other Shore,” Jana Wehbe with “The Day Vladimir Died” and Tania Khoury with “Manity.”
“We are committed to telling stories about and by women across our slate in the Arab world,” said Nuha El-Tayeb, Netflix’s director of content acquisitions for the Middle East and Turkey, in a blog post announcing the initiative.
“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,” she wrote.
This is not the first time Netflix has teamed up with AFAC. In 2020, the streaming service issued a $1 million hardship fund to support Arab crew and freelancers in the film and TV industry during the pandemic.
“More and more Arab women filmmakers are creating moving images that have the power to shed light on the realities of the region,” said AFAC Executive Director Rima Mismar. “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.”
