There aren't many filmmakers who have overcome as much or impacted their local film industries as significantly as Saudi director Haifaa al-Mansour. Against all odds, in a country the World Economic forum ranked 141 out of 144 for gender parity, where most women aren't allowed to drive or even make important decisions…

Saudi Arabia’s new national film organization the Saudi Film Council is supporting its first feature in the shape of Wadja director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s upcoming The Perfect Candidate. The movie will be produced by Al Mansour Productions in Saudi Arabia and Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul of Razor Film Produktion in…

The first female filmmaker out of Saudi Arabia, director Haifaa Al-Mansour has always been an artist who has forged her own path. Telling the story of an enterprising, young Saudi girl with her first well-received feature, Wadjda, Al-Mansour has continued to pursue “stories of women who are breaking barriers” with her…

The greatest romance of her life inspired her darkest creation. That’s the tag for the new IFC Films release about Frankenstein author Mary Shelley’s tumultuous life, which has a May 25 theatrical debut in New York and Los Angeles after bowing at the Toronto Film Festival and with a Tribeca Film Festival screening…

EXCLUSIVE: Wadjda writer-director Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s trailblazing first female filmmaker, is setting up female empowerment animation Miss Camel at LA-based animation hub ShadowMachine, producer of Netflix’s BojackHorseman and Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken. ShadowMachine will develop and produce the…

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi Arabia is getting serious about going back to the movies. The kingdom is in the early stages of an initiative to build and open cinemas after more than 30 years of no public screens. The idea was mooted earlier this year by Ahmed Al-Khatib, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, and was one…

After her 2012 breakout hit Wadjda, the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, director Haifaa Al-Mansour surprised everyone with her follow-up, a British-set costume drama, which premiered last week at the Toronto Film Festival. Titled Mary Shelley, it stars Elle Fanning as the 19th century author who…

EXCLUSIVE:  The cast of Nappily Ever After just got a little bit more divine with American Gods star Ricky Whittle joining the cast of Netflix’s Haifaa Al-Mansour-directed movie. With production on Season 2 of the Starz series gearing up, Whittle is already on the Atlanta set of Nappily, I hear. Filming actually…

Sanaa Lathan has been tapped to star in the Netflix original film Nappily Ever After, with Wadjda helm Haifaa Al-Mansour attached to direct. Ernie Hudson also has been cast of the pic, which is based on the book by Trisha R. Thomas. Tina Chism drafted the script with rewrites from Lisa Loomer, Adam Brooks and most…

A Storm In The Stars, the English-language helming debut of Wadjda‘s Haifaa Al-Mansour which began shooting late last month, has now been joined by Far From The Madding Crowd‘s Tom Sturridge, fresh off an Olivier Award nomination for the West End production of American Buffalo. Game Of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams and Step…

EXCLUSIVE: British actor Ben Hardy has joined the cast of director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s The Storm In The Stars opposite Elle Fanning, Bel Powley and Douglas Booth. The project is a dramatization of the love affair between poet Percy Shelley and 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft — which resulted in Mary writing Frankenstei…

UK distrib Curzon Artificial Eye has acquired a hat trick of classy titles — the Cannes competition fave Son Of Saul, Turkish film Mustang and A Storm In The Stars, the new project from multi-talented Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al-Mansour. Son Of Saul is Laszlo Nemes’ harrowing account of Jewish prisoners forced to assist…