Georges Schoucair

Founder And CEO

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

COO

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 Nouvelle Aquitaine and Hot Docs Blue Ice Lab. She is an alumni of EAVE Producer’s Workshop (2019) and Film Independent Producing Lab (2019).

Antoine Waked

Development Executive

Antoine Waked has a long experience in the field of cinema mentorship and education. He is the development executive at Abbout Productions, the leading film production company in Lebanon; the director of the cinema section at Alba University one of the top filmmaking schools in the country and the co-founder and artistic director of Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival the only fantastic film festival in the Arab world and the Maskoon Fantastic Lab which helps develop and package Arab genre films. Other activities include script consultations for many international films; mentorship in various screenwriting labs and essays and lectures on Arab genre cinema. He also co-directed the award-winning documentary A Certain Nasser about the life of pioneer Lebanese filmmaker Georges Nasser.