ONDA

Fatima AlBanawi

Saudi actress, director, and writer Fatima Al-Banawi belongs to a generation of burgeoning Saudi talents whose passion for art and cinema conflicted with their attempts to communicate with international industry markets and their conservative community. In 2018, the entire world experienced a watershed moment when Saudi Arabia decided to lift its 35-year ban on cinemas, granting movie theater licenses across the kingdom. Nowadays, Al-Banawi's name can be spotted in successful serial dramas on Netflix and Shahid in addition to several Saudi features that have been selected at international festivals and film events. In 2016, Fatima starred in the light-hearted romantic comedy BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH by director Mahmoud Sabbagh, which marked the first Saudi feature to compete at the Berlin International Film Festival and was Saudi Arabia's official submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film. She also landed leading roles in the Saudi Arabian series Bashar in 2017, then the film Roll'em by Abdulelah Al-Qurashi - which was the first Saudi film to be released in Saudi theaters in March 2019 - as well as Shahid's OMM AL-QALAYED series. Then, in 2020, Al-Banawi surprised both local and Arab audiences in what was considered a case study for filmmakers during the coronavirus when she co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the drama series Al-Shak - a Shahid original that she shot fully from home during the pandemic. In the same year, Fatima also took part in the Egyptian horror series PARANORMAL, which achieved huge success among audiences inside and outside the Arab world when it premiered on Netflix. In the following year, she starred in Mariam Ahmady's Egyptian thriller series 60 MINUTES. As for 2022, Fatima worked on CHAMPIONS by the award-winning Spanish filmmaker Manuel Calvo, who co-wrote it with Oscar-nominee Javier Fesser. The film - which is an adaptation of the successful Spanish film Campeones - was released in Saudi and Emirati theaters in March. She also worked on the thriller film ROUTE 10 and finished filming SAWA and BASMA, the latter of which she is also directing. Speaking of her directing work, Fatima participated in the 43rd Cairo International Film Festival when her first short film Until We See Light opened the Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition and was supported by the Red Sea International Film Festival. The short was part of the omnibus feature Becoming, which brought together five short films by five Saudi female directors. Shortly after, she was chosen to be on the jury for the 11th Malmo Arab Film Festival's Feature Film Competition and the 43rd Cairo International Film Festival's Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition. Additionally, Al-Banawi is the official brand ambassador for the French luxury manufacturer Cartier International SNC in the Middle East and was part of the fashion giant's advertising campaign for its latest high jewelry collection Sixéme Sens. She also represented the brand during her participation in the 78th Venice International Film Festival. Fatima was also selected as a member of Saudi Arabia's first professional association for theater and performing arts in 2021. The nomination came for her contributions to the realms of theater and art in general, as she directed several social and dramatic theatrical shows, including The Straight Circle, which was implemented in a street theater format. Al-Banawi's most recent work includes ALHAMOUR H. A. which was released in cinemas earlier this year. She is also currently working on Faris Godus' latest film AHLAM EL-ASR and her first Egyptian film, EL AMEL SEFR, which stars Akram Hosny and is being directed by Karim El-Adl. Moreover, in 2023, Fatima made an appearance in the Panthère de Cartier event that was held in Dubai and was named by Vanity Fair one of the six most influential women in the Middle East during a gala dinner hosted by the Red Sea International Film Festival at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. She was also featured in Estee Lauder's Together We Shine Campaign for Ramadan 2023 and hosted both TV5 Monde's Alula Under the Stars concert in Saudi Arabia and the official reception of the candidacy file for Riyadh Expo 2030 in Paris. In terms of her theater work, Fatima also directed several performances and theater plays that toured internationally. She started off her first tour in Buenos Aires and eventually made her way to the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, traveling far and wide to present layered human stories. Though a challenging endeavor in private society, she believes in the power of storytelling to channel vulnerable and intimate conversations, prompting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France to call her the 'Sophie Calle of Saudi Arabia' after the great reception of her performance Amours Saoudiennes. This passion for psycho-social development and the arts is not new; it started in 2010 when Al-Banawi co-founded the Theater of the Oppressed chapter in Jeddah and staged one of its plays at Harvard later on. As for her other accomplishments, Fatima received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Effat University in Jeddah and an MA in Social Studies from Harvard University with a focus on representing women and the Arab identity in cinema and literature. Afterward, she returned to Saudi Arabia and authored THE OTHER STORY - a book based on 5,000 on-the-go personal stories by anonymous people from Jeddah. The book was released between the 2022-2023 cycle of the Riyadh International Book Fair, Jeddah Book Fair, Al Sharqa Book Fair, and Cairo Book Fair.

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