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, colourful 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.

A Lebanese National who was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, Abdallah is a Multimedia and Graphic Design graduate from the American University of Sharjah.

With a short stint in two global advertising agencies, Young & Rebican and Wunderman, Abdallah was introduced to the world of bespoke and niche luxury publication through Dar Dubai Printing and Publishing, with their eponymous luxury and lifestyle publication, Jumeirah Beach Magazine. During his period, Abdallah had the chance to collaborate exclusively with leading figures in the luxury world.

Later on, the same management behind what was considered the Middle East's best luxury publication set out to publish Abu Dhabi's first bilingual culture, art and design publication, Shawati' Magazine.

In 2013, Abdallah was appointed Managing Partner at MAD Solutions, working closely with leaders in the Arab film industry, promoting for a more robust co-production platform between the Arab world and the international markets worldwide and liaise with regional film theatres and cultural institutions for the screening of award-winning films from the Arab world, with the mission and vision to raise the awareness on the importance of soft power in reshaping the future generations of the Arab world through the medium of film.

Based in New York City, Colin is part of the senior team of Slated as Editorial Director, the private marketplace for accredited investors to track independent film projects online. He also teaches "The Future of Film" class to graduate film and business students at New York University's Tisch School, affiliated with The Cinema Research Institute.

He is also a strategic advisor in Slated's international expansion plans. Colin was an award-winning Editor in Chief in Screen International, the leading publication business authority on the international film industry. He has also been Contributing Editor at CNBC Business. Brown launched the essential news service Screen Daily in 2000, and presided over the publication's push into film industry conferences targeted at global dealmakers and financiers.

As a Film Critic, Colin has been invited on numerous film festival juries including that of the Sundance Film Festival 2009. Colin remains a longstanding industry consultant for the Dubai International Film Festival.

Colin recently joined the board of New York University's Cinema Research Institute (cri.nyu.edu). They give out research fellowships to ideas that will transform the global film industry. He also facilitates "Salons"- a filmed roundtable discussion on burning film topics in partnership with the Tribeca Film Festival and Illy, the Italian coffee company. Colin's blog "Filmonomics" (info.slated.com/filmonomics/) is widely syndicated across film websites including Indiewire and Hope for Film. It has become the leading forum for discussion about film economics and future trends in the film industry.

In terms of his Arab world credentials, Colin is regularly asked by his former paper Screen International to write their feature analyses on the Arab Film Industry. The latest series appeared as part of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival coverage. Brown was asked by the Sundance Institute to join a panel discussion in New York on the future of independent film finance and has been interviewed extensively for radio shows including those for Monocle Radio and CIO Radio.

Moshira Farouk is the Culture and Theatrical Distribution Manager of MAD Solutions. She has been part of the MAD family for ten years, spending five of which fully dedicated to film distribution.

Driven by her passion for cinema, Moshira took part in distributing many Arab and international hit films both theatrically and at several major film festivals. Moshira also pays great attention to distributing Arab films across cinemas both regionally and internationally. Being a master of her trade, Moshira covers all aspects of the films’ theatrical distribution starting from contacting cinemas to strategizing the right plan for the release of the films at those cinemas. However, her work doesn’t end here as she follows up on those films offering her insight to come up with the best marketing strategy for each film. All this while keeping an eye out to haunt for new film projects that deserve a chance to see the light of day.

With extensive experience in public relations, E-publishing, multimedia and distribution, she has been representing the company in several Arab film festivals to name a few: Dubai International Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival, Carthage Film Festival (JCC), Karama Beuirt Human Rights and Tangier Mediterranean Short Film Festival. She has also been part of several film juries, seminars, workshops, and panel discussions on film distribution.

Moshira holds a B.A. in Journalism from Helwan University. Throughout her career, she worked as an editor in several Cinema and TV magazines and publications, including; Good News Cinema, Good News TV and Satellite and Shereet website, in addition to several TV shows.

An arts and culture marketing professional, Meriame Deghedi has a penchant for disseminating the diversity of the cinematic art works and films d’auteur to the general public through different means; production, distribution, and education in the visual image actions. She studied Cinema in Lumière-Lyon 2 University. Her work at Shellac, a distribution and production company based in Paris - Marseille, encouraged her to pursue a master’s degree in Dissemination of Arts and Knowledge Through Cinema. Through her career, she had the chance to be part of the robust environment of film festivals and film events (FIDLab, Cinemed, ImageSingulières, Cairo Industry Days..etc).

Following her motivation to promote non-commercial films and make them accessible to the general public, she earned a second master’s degree in Arts & Culture Marketing in Montpellier School of Management, and returned to Cairo, Egypt, to pursue a Film Distribution career in her homeland. In 2016, she joined MAD Solutions where she oversees and implements the distribution and marketing strategies of MAD’s titles across theatrical and non-theatrical platforms, with a focus on international sales and acquisitions. Since 2019, Meriame was appointed Manager of the 6th Cairo Film Connection at Cairo Industry Days, held on the sidelines of the 41st Cairo International Film Festival.

Ahmed Mahmoud is the Financial Manager and Theatrical Distribution Manager in Egypt at MAD Solutions since 2013.

Henceforth, Ahmed's effective communication skills have greatly benefited the company in expanding MAD's network of theatres across Egypt.

Driven by his passion for cinema, Ahmed also handles different sales operations and negotiations with an extensive roster of TV channels and VOD platforms in the Arab world, and takes care of the legal contracting process for MAD Solutions and its list of clients.