Officially launched in 2024 Cannes Film Festival, MAD World is Arab cinema’s first-ever dedicated global sales agency — an industry milestone that was detailed separately earlier this year in three of the world’s leading global entertainment business publications: Variety, Deadline, and Screen Daily.
Registered in Dubai, MAD World marks the latest expansion of the pan-Arab indie film studio MAD Solutions, which is headquartered in Cairo and has grown rapidly to become both the world’s largest distributor of Arabic film content as well as the world’s largest promotional agency and management company for Arab creative talent.
MAD World introduced itself to the global marketplace with a hefty worldwide slate of exciting new Arab-language films. There are currently more than a dozen titles — some completed, others in various stages of production — that are entirely new to the international licensing marketplace. Among them are unexpected narratives from Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia that between them span a multitude of storytelling tones and genres.
The sales company’s creation builds on MAD Solutions’ success at last year’s Cannes Film Festival with the Sudanese Un Certain Regard title GOODBYE JULIA, which scored a raft of sales to territories including France, Benelux, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and German-speaking territories.
The company also enjoyed sales success last year with another Cannes festival title, the Directors’ Fortnight short film THE RED SEA MAKES ME WANNA CRY, which became the first Jordanian film ever sold to the MUBI global streaming platform.
In addition to representing films made by other film companies, MAD has become increasingly involved in packaging its own Arabic projects and co-productions with international market potential, giving rise to a potent new pipeline of global sales rights for MAD World to handle.
MAD World also handles sales on an extensive library of recent festival award-winners, documentary features, acclaimed shorts, back-catalog titles, and regional box office and streaming successes, many of which have not been seen by audiences outside the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
The majority of these titles, including the indie smash hit GOODBYE JULIA, have been theatrically released across the Arabic-speaking world through MAD Distribution, the company’s distribution division that will remain focused on the MENA marketplace.
MAD WORLD is spearheaded by MAD Solutions’ two Co-Founders, Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, as well as its third Managing Partner, Colin Brown. All assume Co-President titles at MAD World, with Karkouti serving as CEO.
Also joining MAD World are two European executives experienced in the international licensing arena; Edin De Liancourt, whose career has encompassed roles at Allrites, Film Seekers, and Good Fellas, joins MAD World as Vice President of Sales & Acquisitions; and Jeanne Deny, who assisted the international sales team at SND - Groupe M6 and the acquisitions team at Federation Studios in France, joins as Director of Sales & Acquisitions.
Parent company MAD Solutions is prolific in the financing, production, packaging, marketing, and releasing of Arab entertainment content that spans the gamut from festival prize-winners to commercial blockbusters. Alongside MAD World are several other subsidiaries including:
MAD Celebrity, a talent management and promotional agency that represents a blue-chip roster of more than 60 top-tier on- and off-camera talents from 12 different Arab-speaking countries. Eleven of its stars, including pioneering trailblazer Youssra, graced all three covers of Vogue Arabia’s April edition in 2024;
MAD Marketing, which specializes in sponsorship, marketing campaigns and all things PR, for both companies and films;
MAD Distribution, which handles the release of film titles that MAD acquires, positions, and supports across the world’s film festival circuits, multiplexes, and streaming platforms;
MAD Content, its editorial and marketing machine, that creates high-quality multilingual press releases, social media posts, video features, print campaigns, and whatever else it takes to elevate the power of Arab storytelling and creativity;
Arab Cinema Center, a Berlin-registered non-profit organization that promotes Arab cinema internationally, publishes a magazine for and about the industry and hosts the pioneering Critics’ Awards for Arab Films.
