MAFF Industry Days - Jury 2026
The jury at MAFF Industry Days (MID) plays a central role in recognizing and celebrating outstanding talent within the Arab film industry. Comprising experienced filmmakers, producers, festival programmers, and industry experts, the jury carefully evaluates submitted projects, shorts, and feature films based on creativity, storytelling, technical excellence, and cultural impact.
Each year, the jury brings together a diverse set of perspectives, ensuring a fair and comprehensive assessment of the works presented. Their decisions help highlight emerging voices, support innovative projects, and promote collaboration across the Arab and international film communities.
The MID jury’s awards not only honor artistic achievement but also provide filmmakers with valuable visibility, industry connections, and opportunities to further their careers.
Baho Bakhsh
Baho Bakhsh is a British national originally from Saudi Arabia and the CEO of Red Star Films, a production company founded in Egypt in 2014. Under her leadership, the company has produced over 40 short films, features, and documentaries, supporting emerging filmmakers across the MENA region.
Recent projects include The Tale of Daye’s Family (2025), which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival; Love, Imagined (2025), premiering at the El Gouna Film Festival; One More Show (2025), shown at the Cairo International Film Festival; Complaint No. 713317 (2026), which had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; and Life After Siham (2025), co‑produced by Red Star and selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s ACID programme. Earlier work includes Goodbye Julia (2023), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Baho continues to focus on developing distinctive stories and nurturing new voices in the region.
Basel Mawlawi
Basel Mawlawi is a producer at Kinana Films, a Malmö-based production company focused on developing and producing films in Sweden and across the Nordic region, with a strong emphasis on co-productions with the MENA region. He leads the company’s production development pipeline, with a focus on cross-cultural storytelling in both fiction and documentary.
His recent credits include Yalla Parkour (Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC 2024, European premiere at Berlinale 2025, Firebird Award at Hong Kong International Film Festival), Passing Dreams (opening film at Malmö Arab Film Festival 2025), Ett Ont (PÖFF Shorts, Sitges, Uppsala), and Allting är bra nu (Uppsala 2023). He also co-produced Habibi Hussein, which premiered at the Cairo International Film Festival and screened at Busan and Rotterdam in 2026 as a Swedish co-production.
Basel holds a BA from Middlesex University and a Professional Diploma in Film Production from SAE Institute. He is an alum of EAVE 2021 and DFI’s Producers Lab. Recently, he worked as a creative producer at the European Writers Club, where he designed Bridging Generations 2025 a training program supported by the European Union to empower TV series writers in developing their projects.
Ola Salwa
Ola Salwa is a Polish film critic with over 20 years of professional experience, programmer and script consultant. She has published in leading national film magazines such as Film and Kino, major opinion weeklies including Przekrój, Polityka, and Wprost, as well as international outlets such as Cineuropa. She serves as Head of Industry at the Polish Film Festival, where she coordinates industry programs. She also moderates panels, pitching sessions and hosts Q&A and masterclasses in Poland and abroad. She also works as a script consultant, script editor and participates in selection committees for international funds. Ola Salwa also leads workshops for emerging film critics and initiated a grant programme supporting film criticism, currently under revision by the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute in Poland .
Her current focus is documentary cinema and films from the SWANA region. In Warsaw, she curates the Arabian Nights section at Kino Muranów, dedicated to cinema from the region. She is a member of the European Film Academy and FIPRESCI, and has served on juries at major international festivals, including Toronto, Thessaloniki, Tallinn Black Nights, Warsaw, El Gouna, Amman, and Stockholm.
Mohamed Sayed Abdel Rehim
Mohamed Sayed Abdel Rehim is an Egyptian film critic and journalist. He currently serves as Head of Cairo Industry Days at the Cairo International Film Festival and Artistic Director of the Jerusalem Arab Film Festival. He has previously held the position of Artistic Director at the Hurghada Youth Film Festival and the Sharm El-Sheikh Asian Film Festival.
He is a programmer at the Cairo International Film Festival and has previously worked as a programmer for the Red Sea International Film Festival, the Ismailia International Festival for Documentaries and Short Films, and the Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean Countries.
Abdel Rehim is a board member of the Egyptian Film Critics Association (EFCA), a member of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), and a Golden Globe Awards International Voter. He is the author of Khairy Beshara: The Rebel, published by the Red Sea International Film Festival, and has written hundreds of articles published in newspapers, magazines, and online platforms across Egypt and the Arab world. He has also served as a jury member at numerous international and regional film festivals.
Margo Haddad
Dr. Margo Haddad is a filmmaker, writer, academic, and actress specializing in film directing and film education. She holds a PhD in Cinema and is an Assistant Professor of Filmmaking at the American University of Madaba. Her work focuses on narrative cinema, directing practice, and authorship. She is a published writer with several books in cinema studies and fiction. Alongside her work as a director and academic, she has acted in numerous film and television productions with leading directors across the Arab world. Dr. Haddad has received multiple awards for her cinematic work and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Cambridge in recognition of her contribution to cinema and culture.