Sundance Standout ‘Animalia’ Acquired For Middle East Distribution by Egypt’s Film Clinic (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Kuwaiti-born writer-director Zeyad (also known as “Z”) Alhusaini, whose action movie with comedic undertones “How I Got There” recently won the audience award at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival, has joined United Talent Agency for representation in all areas. The groundbreaking film about two best buddies from childhood, named Salem and Asad, who stumble upon a gun shipment and try to seize this opportunity to get rich quick is set entirely in the Persian Gulf. “How I Got There” provides a relatively realistic glimpse of Kuwait’s present-day melting-pot of cultures, and its underworld of gun-running mercenaries, gangs, and terrorists, plus the local rap scene.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s Film AlUla, the entity looking to attract international productions to a sprawling area of desert and giant boulders that boasts an ancient city, is forging fashion world ties. The film commission for the swathe of northwest Saudi Arabia roughly the size of Belgium that also comprises a lush oasis and vast sandstone canyons, is launching an initiative called AlUla Creates involving use of an eco-friendly studio and the possibility of tapping into development funds for projects by female directors at the intersection of film and fashion. AlUla Creates has partnered with the British Fashion Council and with Saudi actress Mia Al Zahrani (“The Perfect Candidate”); British filmmaker and creative director Alec Maxwell – founder of digital platform Kloss Films whose clients include Bulgari, Stella McCartney, and Carolina Herrera –; and fashion models Helena Christensen and Eva Herzigova as “ambassadors” to promote the platform, according to a statement.

 is losing two of its stars ahead of season 10.ET has learned Anila Sajja and Dr. Contessa Metcalfe are exiting the Bravo reality series as it heads back into production for the upcoming season. Sajja was a main cast member for the eighth and ninth seasons, while Metcalfe was a regular from seasons five through nine.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming Paramount+ series “Lioness” has cast Bassem Youssef in a guest starring role, Variety has learned exclusively. Youssef will now appear in a cast that includes Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Stephanie Nur, Hannah Love Lanier, Michael Kelly, Morgan Freeman, and Nicole Kidman. The official logline states that the show “is based on a real-life CIA program and follows Cruz Manuelos (De Oliveira), a rough-around-the-edges but passionate young Marine recruited to join the CIA’s Lioness Engagement Team to help bring down a terrorist organization from within.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Autlook Filmsales has sold “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” which won the directing award for Anna Hints in the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance, to more than 20 territories in North America, Europe and Australia. Deals are confirmed with Neue Visionen in Germany, Trigon in Switzerland, Against Gravity in Poland, Fidalgo in Norway, Ost For Paradise in Denmark, Vedetta in Benelux, Filmtrade in Greece and Cyprus, FilmIn in Spain, Alambique in Portugal, Filmladen in Austria, Pasaka Films in Lithuania, Artcam in Czech Rep. and Slovak Rep., Best Film in Latvia, Mozinet in Hungary, and Madman in Australia and New Zealand. The rights in U.S. have been picked up by Greenwich Entertainment and in Canada by Sherry Media Group. The theatrical release in Estonia is by ACME Film.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Middle East satellite and streaming platform OSN Group has extended its relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery forging a new multi-year licensing deal under which it will become the exclusive home for HBO content in the region. In addition to HBO shows, such as “Succession,” the renewed agreement has been expanded to cover additional content and channel offerings from Warner Bros. giving OSN premium access to recent blockbuster movie hits such as “The Batman,” “Dune,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” and “The Suicide Squad.” The deal was announced in Dubai with “Succession” star Brian Cox on hand.

K.J. Yossman Freida Pinto is lending her voice to a new animated film project in honor of International Women’s Day. She Creates Change is a new nonprofit-led animation and live action film project from global education organization Room to Read produced by Nexus Studios. The multi-media initiative, which spans a six-episode film series as well as books and audio stories, aims to promote gender equality through telling the stories of young women across the planet. It will initially be available in English, Hindi and Spanish with plans to translate it into dozens more languages and will be distributed across the world via Room to Read and educational partnerships. The project will also be released to general audiences in October.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” the story of a teenage girl who is groomed by a man twice her age, received nearly universal acclaim when it debuted at Sundance in 2022, going on to win an award for Jamie Dack’s direction. And yet, despite all the good reviews and honors, it took months for the film to find a distributor. The reason, Dack says, is many film companies didn’t want to touch a movie that tackles such a controversial subject. “People were scared,” says Dack. “There were many companies that wanted to take meetings with me and that told me they wanted to work with me on my next project. They were blunt. They said, ‘we love this film, but we just can’t distribute it.'”

Naman Ramachandran Production has wrapped on TXL Films’ “Nomad,” featuring Leo Woodall, breakout star of HBO’s Emmy-winning series “The White Lotus,” and Sana’a Shaik (“2067”). The film tells the story of a mysterious loner (Woodall) with a bizarre condition that takes him inexplicably to the ends of the earth. When he crosses paths with a stifled city girl (Shaik), they are plunged into a fight for survival that takes them across every continent. “Nomad” is from writer-director Taron Lexton, known for “Searching for Fellini” (2017). The film is unique in that it is one of the few films that shot across all seven continents, like Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud and Michel Debats’ Oscar nominated documentary “Winged Migration” (2001).

Sundance prize winner Sofia Alaoui, Yemeni-Scottish Oscar-nominee Sara Ishaq and Emmy-feted Egyptian cinematographer Muhammad Hamdy will be among filmmakers presenting projects at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event, unfolding in Qatar March 10-15.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Utopia and Sumerian have acquired worldwide rights to Eddie Alcazar’s Sundance-premiering “Divinity.” The film had a memorable premiere in Park City, where there was a medical incident (unrelated to the movie) during its world premiere at the Egyptian Theater. Guests in attendance — who received zines and VHS boxes upon arrival — were also treated to writer-director Alcazar showing up to the event in a terrifying mask. Executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and starring Stephen Dorff, the experimental film is set in an otherworldly human existence, where the creation of a groundbreaking immortality serum named “Divinity” is wreaking havoc.

that spot-on! Listen to Fallon in the clip at the top and decide for yourself.DeBose had the internet in a craze days after her performance of the girl-power rap at the BAFTAs on Feb. 19 that was a combination of a tweaked “Sister Are Doing It for Themselves” and “We Are Family.”A sampling: ” Dame Emma, I’m so fond.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent CNN on Monday went live from a new state-of-the-art broadcasting facility in Abu Dhabi being touted as a new chapter in the network’s commitment to the Middle East.  The new high-tech CNN bureau, with a 10-million-pixel video wall and a suite of fully robotic HD cameras, is located on Abu Dhabi’s artificial Yas Island in the new Yas Creative Hub established to lure media industries to Abu Dhabi by twofour54, the government entity which is implementing the UAE’s capital city’s media and entertainment industry effort. The new CNN hub, which also includes four editing suites and a modern open-plan newsroom, increases the scale and scope of its UAE operation boosting Abu Dhabi’s role as “one of the network’s key international production hubs, alongside Atlanta, New York, London, and Hong Kong,” CNN said in a statement.

Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) has announced its return for a sixth edition from October 13 to 20, 2023 after a one-year hiatus.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival will be back this year after being put on hiatus in 2022. Organizers have announced that the prominent Arab fest’s 6th edition will take place in the Red Sea resort town Oct. 13-20, while the fest’s industry arm the CineGouna Platform, will run Oct. 15-19. The fest, which was launched in 2017 by Egyptian telecom billionaire Naguib Sawiris – whose brother Samih built the El Gouna resort in a swathe of desert near Hurghada, a tourist town 250 miles south of Cairo – had been cancelled last year after five successful editions. Though no reason was given, the one year break was possibly due to Egypt’s Red Sea area is being impacted by the war between Russia and Ukraine, whose citizens represent about 40% of beach tourists who travel to Egypt annually.

, Nicole is back with Mahmoud's family and is told that she doesn't need friends in Egypt outside of their family.Nicole has moved to Egypt to be with Mahmoud for a second time, after she left the first time due to having trouble adapting to the stricter Muslim culture. For example, Nicole doesn't like adhering to the way women are expected to dress and questioned why Mahmoud doesn't have to follow the same standards. In this clip, she speaks to her sister-in-law, Fatima — who moved from China to marry Mahmoud's brother — and asks her for tips on how she has learned to adjust.

Days before the release of Black Country, New Road’s towering sophomore LP, Ants From Up There (42nd on our 50 best albums of 2022 list), lead singer Isaac Wood left the band abruptly, citing the onset of debilitating depression and anxiety that made it “difficult to play guitar and sing at the same time.” Instead of calling it quits — and without even taking much time to process the loss — the remaining six members of the group wrote an entirely new set of songs to perform on their ensuing world tour. Unreleased until now, eight of these tracks have been immortalized in a new concert film: Live at Bush Hall.

Callum McLennan Bendita Film Sales has grown its slate acquiring Itsaso Arana’s directorial debut “The Girls Are Alright,” (“Las chicas están bien”).  The acquisition marks the latest pick up by the Tenerife based-outfit following recent announcements on Juan Sebastián Torales’ “Almamula,” and Lois Patiño’s “Samsara,” both featuring at the Berlinale. The film has already secured domestic distribution in Spain with Elástica Films.   “Itsaso gave us the chance to read one of the first versions of the script for ‘The Girls Are Alright.’ We immediately fell in love and realized that we were dealing with a singular talent, with a unique vision,” said Luis Renart, head of Bendita Film Sales. “It has been a pleasure to follow the evolution of this project and to finally discover this beautiful, festive and unique film, which we are thrilled to bring to audiences around the world,” he added.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian director Abu Bakr Shawky, whose first feature “Yomeddine” had the rare distinction of making the competition cut for Cannes, has completed his followup, the Saudi-set travel movie “Hajjan” which is expected to soon surface on the festival circuit.  Somewhat similarly to “Yomeddine,” which made a splash in 2018, the hotly anticipated “Hajjan” involves a journey across the desert, this time embarked upon by a boy and his camel. The big-budget film, which was shot mostly in the sprawling area situated along Saudi’s Red Sea coast in Tabuk – in the northwest of the kingdom – is about a young boy named Matar who, after the death of his brother on the camel race track, tries to avenge his death. To do so he becomes a camel jockey, only to find himself entangled in a battle for his own freedom.

Naman Ramachandran Portuguese auteur João Canijo (San Sebastián winner “Blood of My Blood”) has a brace of films at the Berlin Film Festival in 2023. “Bad Living” is in competition while its companion piece “Living Bad” is in the Encounters strand. “Bad Living” follows five conflicted women who are operating an old family-run hotel, trying to save it from going under. The unexpected arrival of a granddaughter to this oppressive space stirs trouble, reviving latent hatred and piled-up resentments. “Living Bad,” which plays out like the reverse shot of “Bad Living,” follows the stories of three groups of guests in the same hotel with glimpses of what transpires in the first film.