The three-day workshop will be held across Cairo, Dubai and Jeddah, with all participants receiving an opportunity to visit Netflix’s production studios in Europe in early 2025.
Netflix, in collaboration with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), has introduced a new initiative titled “Women in Film – Bring Your Story to Life.” This programme, part of Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, aims to support the development of up to 25 emerging female filmmakers from across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait.
The pan-regional initiative invites participants from the Women in Film programme as well as new talents to collaborate on a group project under the mentorship of industry experts. Each group will create a short fiction film, with a budget of $25,000 allocated to each project to help bring their stories to life. The programme will provide comprehensive support, including script consultations, pre-shoot planning and in-person editing and post-production sessions held in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking about the initiative, Nuha Al Tayeb, Director of Content for Middle East, North Africa and Turkey at Netflix, said: “At Netflix, we are strongly committed to amplifying the voices of women in the region. This initiative further underscores our unfettered support for authentic storytelling and developing the region’s talent pipeline. Our long-standing partnership with AFAC has uncovered a generation of promising Arab talent, and we are dedicated to ensuring that women are represented both on and off camera.”
Rima Mismar, Executive Director of AFAC, added: “AFAC has been active in supporting filmmakers and artists for the past 18 years, contributing to the production of more than 500 films. We are glad to be able to expand our support to filmmakers through this partnership with Netflix, coupling the financial support with mentorship and accompaniment, and providing a platform for learning and experimenting for emerging women filmmakers.”
Targeted at women under 28 who have directed no more than one short film outside of their academic studies, the programme encourages applicants to submit a story treatment and draft script for a short fiction film. Teams should include core members such as a writer, director and producer. Applications can be submitted either as a complete team with a project or individually for technical roles like cinematographer or editor. An independent jury will select five projects based on their quality, and an online matchmaking process will assist incomplete teams in finding the necessary technical expertise.
Applicants must submit a story treatment and draft script for short fiction films that are culturally sensitive and enhance viewers’ understanding of local cultural experiences. Animation projects are not eligible for submission.
Proposed projects should be designed to work within a modest budget and involve minimal production elements. Each project can utilise a maximum of two locations and feature no more than three actors. The use of visual effects (VFX), animation or graphics is prohibited.
Directors who have previously helmed a full-length feature film for distribution or a TV series for broadcast are not eligible to apply.
The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2024.
