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Over his 10+ years of experience, Georges Schoucair has developed and produced critically acclaimed [and award-winning] independent movies and has actively contributed to the establishment of an attractive and globally acknowledged environment for film investments in Lebanon and to the development of the Lebanese cinema, one of the most promising cinemas being created in the Middle-East today.
As a producer, Georges was able to develop strong relationships with prominent Arab and international film professionals and has closely worked with award winning directors (such as Kaouther Ben Hania, Ivo Ferreira, Alain Gomis, Annemarie Jacir, Khalil Joreige, Joana Hadjithomas, Mohammad Malas, Lucretia Martel, Shirin Neshat, Asli Ozge, Rafi Pitts, Ghassan Salhab, Bill Plympton, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Vatche Boulghourjian) and internationally recognized actors (such as Catherine Deneuve, Pierre Richard, Nadine Labaki, Nada Abou Farhat, Diamand Bou Abboud). His films have been exhibited at international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Toronto, Venice, Locarno, Karlovy Vary…
In parallel to Abbout Productions, Georges founded MC Distribution, a distribution company which releases Arab and international films in the Middle-East, and has been since 2008 the active vice-president of Metropolis, a differentiated art house cinema venture in Beirut. His most recent endeavor is Schortcut Films, which objective is to identify and invest in high quality international independent films.
Myriam Sassine majored in audiovisual studies and received an M.A. in Cinema Research. In 2010, she joined Abbout Productions producing several features and documentaries such as Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl (Venice Film Festival Official Selection / TIFF 2021), All This Victory by Ahmad Ghossein (Venice Critic’s Week 2019), 1982 by Oualid Mouaness (TIFF 2019), Panoptic by Rana Eid (Locarno 2017) and Amal by Mohamed Siam (Idfa 2017). From 2016 to 2020, she was the COO of Schortcut Films dedicated to co-producing international films such as Félicité by Alain Gomis and Beauty and the Dogs by Kaouther Ben Hania. In 2016, she cofounded Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, the only genre film festival in the Middle East and acts as the festival’s executive director. Since 2021, she’s the artistic director of Beirut Cinema Platform, Beirut DC’s coproduction platform. Myriam teaches film producing at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and ESA Business School. She’s also a producing mentor for several institutions such as Doha Film Institute, Produire au Sud Agadir, Full Circle Lab
Antoine Waked is an experienced professional in cinema mentorship and education. Since 2011, he has served as a development executive at Abbout Productions, a leading film production company in Lebanon. Antoine is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, the only festival of its kind in the Arab world, and the Maskoon Fantastic Lab, focusing on the development of Arab genre films. He also held the position of director of the cinema section at Alba University from 2021 to 2023 where he teaches writing and directing since 2005. Antoine’s activities include script consultations for international films, mentorship in screenwriting labs, and delivering lectures on Arab genre cinema. He co-directed the award- winning documentary “A Certain Nasser,” exploring the life of Lebanese pioneer filmmaker Georges Nasser.
Christian Eid holds a bachelor degree in Cinema from USEK- Lebanon (2009) and a masters in Digital Communication and Project Management from Paris 8- France (2017).
In 2010, he joined Abbout Productions as a Production Coordinator and currently is a Production Supervisor on the company’s feature films. He participated in Berlinale Talents 2013 and Beirut Locarno Industry Academy International 2018.
He is currently working on We are from there, his first feature documentary as a producer.
Christian also works as a Communication Officer and Community Manager for film festivals and cinema associations such as La Semaine de la Critique- Cannes, Maskoon Fantastic Film Fest- Beirut.
Renée Awit studied filmmaking and audiovisual arts at The Institute of Theatre, Audiovisual and Cinematographic Studies (IESAV) of the Saint- Joseph’s University. After graduating in 2010, she worked as a segment director and editor on several reality TV shows. She directed two shorts films: the award winning film Au Milieu des Autres (2010) which was screened in various international film festivals and L’Une et L’Autre (2012) and two short documentaries: Grandpa’s Cinema (2008) and Familiar Stranger (2015).
She also directed and edited numerous videos and cultural films and was the General Coordinator of many cinematographic projects, workshops and film events.
She started working in 2014 as an Assistant Producer at Abbout Productions.
Mike Malajalian studied film directing at the Lebanese University – Institute of Fine Arts, after a Master’s degree in Graphic Design & Visual Communication in the same university.
After graduating, he worked as an art director in many advertising agencies and as a freelance Graphic Designer. He has directed many short movies including La Femme aux Raisins (2011) which was awarded the Silver Aleph at the Beirut International Film Festival (2012) and was selected at film festivals in Bulgaria, USA & Australia, & Gli occhi di Aldo (2014) which he shot in south Italy and was selected in many festivals. He also directed short documentaries, music videos and commercials, and has worked within the organizing teams of many film festivals in Lebanon.
Since June 2015, he joined the Abbout Productions team as Production Coordinator.
Born in Lebanon in 1982, Badih Massaad studied film directing at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), graduating with high honors in 2005. His graduation short film, “Badkon shi…t?,” screened at prestigious international film festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and received the Special Jury Award at the European Film Festival in Beirut. Since 2004, Badih has been actively involved in the audiovisual industry, working as both a Director and 1st Assistant Director on numerous TV commercials, music videos, and short films. He also participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2006. In 2012, hestarted teaching directing and editing at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA). He also co-directed the feature documentary “A Certain Nasser” in 2017 which premiered at Lumière Festival in Lyon and won the Salah Abou Seif Award at Cairo International Film Festival. Also in 2017, Badih took on new roles, joining MC Distribution and Abbout Productions, working on Middle-Eastern film distribution. In 2021, he further expanded his activities by joining Beirut’s Metropolis Cinema’s team which specializes in programming arthouse films. Additionally, he joined the Arab programming team at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
