Thursday March 28th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

The Oscars' Academy Welcomes Two Egyptian Filmmakers as Its Newest Members

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's recently recruited 12 Arab filmmakers as their newest members, two of which are Egyptian.

Staff Writer

12 Arab filmmakers - two of which are Egyptians - have recently become members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the writing, directing, acting, documentary, animation and production categories.

The Academy - which awards the Oscars - is known globally for it’s annual Academy Awards, regularly attended by the world's biggest stars. The committee's two newest Egyptian members are feature and documentary film director, Mohamed Siam and senior creative at Walt Disney Animation studios in Los Angeles, Yasser Hamed.

Siam - who’s taken part in several film festivals and won a prize for his first documentary in the 28th edition of Carthage International Film Festival -  found global fame with this second movie “Amal”. The film, which won a number of awards including the Robert Bosch Film Prize, the AfriDocs prize at Durban FilmMart and Thessaloniki Docs In Progress award, follows the trials and tribulations of a young Egyptian girl during the 2011 revolution and its aftermath.

The second committee member, Yasser Hamed, who moved to Australia as a child, has worked on hit Walt Disney Animations, the likes of “Big Hero 6”, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, “Happy Feet” and Acardemy Award-nominated film, “Moana”.

Main image taken from IDFA 2017.