One of the most internationally recognised figures across the Arab film, media and entertainment sectors, Alaa Karkouti has been a tireless champion of Arab cinema and film culture across the world stage for nearly two decades.

As the co-founder and CEO of MAD Solutions, the Arab world’s most prolific distributor of Arabic film content, Karkouti has expanded the global audience for Arab storytellers by building business and creative relationships across the worldwide industry map. Several landmark co-productions between MENA and countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia have resulted from his energetic advocacy and networking initiatives.

Karkouti’s involvement with Arab entertainment extends beyond the packaging, production, distribution and marketing of feature films, series and shorts. MAD Solutions is also the Arab world’s pre-eminent talent management company, with a mission to nurture and burnish the careers of Arab industry professionals, actors and filmmakers both regionally and globally.

He is also one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Arab Cinema Center (ACC) , the networking hub that serves as the gathering point for Arab professionals and their international peers at major events such as Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Toronto and Locarno. As part of its activities, ACC publishes Arab Cinema Magazine, an English-language quarterly that shines a spotlight on Arab film culture, talents and business. ACC also pioneered the Arab Film Critics’ Awards for Arab cinema - a concept that was also expanded to European cinema too through an annual award presented at the Cairo film festival.

A journalist and magazine publisher by background – one who compiled comprehensive archives on the economics of filmmaking – Karkouti is acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the workings of the Arab film industry, drawing on his years as a business analyst and film critic. His expertise has given him opportunities to serve on panels and juries at film festivals throughout the world.

Alaa Karkouti's participation in the film industry includes a year-round commitment to workshops and seminars at major film festivals, as well as networking sessions held from 2015 to 2020 by the European Film Commission as part of the Arab Cinema Center.

Before co-founding MAD Solutions in 2010 with Maher Diab, Karkouti worked in film distribution, production, and theatre management. He has also served as the publisher for several prominent publications including Good News Cinema and Vodafone Ten Magazine.

As a journalist, Karkouti had the opportunity to cover and interview major movie stars at various film festivals. He has written articles on the Arab film industry for a variety of prestigious publications, such as Forbes Middle East, Variety, and Screen International, and also published the first-ever list of the 50 most powerful people working in the film business across the Arab world.

Maher Diab is the creative beating heart behind MAD Solutions, the company he co-founded and built into the Arab world’s leading distributor of Arabic film content. Combining his celebrated skills as a visual artist with a keen eye for storytelling talent, Diab has been instrumental in turning MAD Solutions into Arab cinema’s most expressive marketing platform in the global marketplace. He has given Arab films and filmmakers a self-confident, colorful identity that smashes through stereotypes and presents them in all their progressive shades and subtle sensibilities.

An acclaimed illustrator, photographer, sculptor and painter, Diab began his career as an art director in the advertising industry. He worked for several years at some of the world’s leading ad agencies – including BBDO, Y&R, and JWT – deploying everything from photo-montage and layout design to digital illustration on behalf of their demanding clientele.

With the creation of MAD Solutions, which he co-founded with Alaa Karkouti in 2010, Diab helped to usher in an exciting, bold new wave for Arab cinema while also elevating MENA’s marginalized entertainment industry to a level comparable to its worldwide counterparts. Central to this was the realization of Arab Cinema Center (ACC), which he conceived in 2015 as a worldwide promotional and networking platform for Arab cinema. Visible at every major film festival and market event on the industry calendar, ACC serves as the global hub for all those around the world with a vested interest in Arab stories and talents. So many landmark co-productions and international collaborations were born out of discussions initiated at the ACC.

Diab has served as a jury member at a number of key film festivals and events, including the BBC Arabic Festival's Feature Documentary Panel, the main competition of the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival, and the Latin Arab International Film Festival.

He recently showcased his artistry with the opening of his first solo exhibition, Beyond Sleep and Wakefulness, at Cairo’s prestigious Zamalek Art Gallery, which was attended by many well-known celebrities and Arab artists.

Website: http://maherdiab.com

As a media analyst, Colin is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the economics of the global entertainment production and distribution landscape. He is a Managing Partner at the Cairo-based MAD Solutions, the world’s leading distributor of Arab-language films and also the world’s largest promotional agency and management company for Arab creative talent. He is also spearheading a venture to build Iceland’s first purpose built film and TV studio that will also be the world’s first fully “green” filmmaking complex.

An award-winning film business journalist by background, Colin was formerly the longest-serving editor of the respected film business publication “Screen International”, during which time he conceived and launched several of the publication’s highest profile initiatives including its online service "Screen Daily".

Colin currently teaches the “Globalization of Media & Entertainment” course at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has also taught "The Future of Film” class to graduate students at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. As a Faculty Committee member of NYU’s Cinema Research Institute, the forerunner to the NYU Production Lab, Colin awarded annual fellowships to new models of financing, producing, marketing and distributing media and entertainment.

Colin is a regular researcher and writer for SPI Olsberg, the London-based consultancy company for whom he has devised the first comprehensive report on what is spent annually on film and TV production around the globe. A frequent lecturer/speaker on the future of the world’s storytelling business, Colin has been a mentor and advisor to Storytek, the content accelerator and creative innovation hub based in Tallinn, Estonia.

Colin spent six years as a member of the senior team of Slated, the data-driven film financing platform. As its Editorial Director, Colin oversaw the creation of informational tools and educational resources that bridge the communication gap between the investors and filmmakers. His influential “Filmonomics” blog posts helped decode entertainment financing and were widely circulated.

Prior to joining Slated, was a Contributing Editor at “CNBC Business”, the international magazine where he spent three years writing across on a range of topics including film, media, technology, start-ups, cities, hotels, clean-tech and the collaborative workplace.

As a film critic, Colin has been invited on numerous film festival juries including that of the Sundance Film Festival - where he helped judge the world cinema dramatic