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Empowering Independent Cinema
Schortcut Films (“Schortcut”) is a company dedicated to co-producing and financing independent feature films. It was founded by Georges Schoucair, best known for producing some of the most critically acclaimed Lebanese films.
Schortcut’s aim is to support differentiated and ambitious independent films, which feature stories transcending boundaries and cultures, and are able to appeal to an internationally-wide audience while at the same time respond to an increasing demand for an alternative, engaging and stimulating cinema.
Building on the decade-long success of Schoucair’s production house, Abbout Productions (www.abboutproductions. com), Schortcut currently backs renowned producers and new talents in making diverse genre “author films” with imaginative scenarios and support them in finding the necessary funding for their productions, with a purpose of commercial success.
MEET US
The Schortcut core team is composed of the same team of Abbout Productions which pro- duced some of the best Lebanese films such as, to name its most recent title, Tramontane by Vatche Boulghourjian, the first Lebanese feature film competing in the prestigious Critic’s Week selection of Cannes International Film Festival 2016. The team is surrounded and endorsed by experienced movie industry professionals as well as financial and legal consultants. In more than 10 years of experience, the team developed a harmonious work symbiosis, combining their various skills and passion for cinema to produce and support some of the best contempo- rary world cinema features.
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 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 is an experienced professional in cinema mentorship and education. Since 2011, he has served as a development executive at Abbout Productions, a leading film production company in Lebanon. Antoine is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, the only festival of its kind in the Arab world, and the Maskoon Fantastic Lab, focusing on the development of Arab genre films. He also held the position of director of the cinema section at Alba University from 2021 to 2023 where he teaches writing and directing since 2005. Antoine’s activities include script consultations for international films, mentorship in screenwriting labs, and delivering lectures on Arab genre cinema. He co-directed the award- winning documentary “A Certain Nasser,” exploring the life of Lebanese pioneer filmmaker Georges Nasser.