TEAM
MOUHAMAD KEBLAWI
Founder – Head of festival & industry
Director, Producer, Founder and Festival Director of Malmo Arab Film Festival. Expert producer, director in television and documentary film production. He has a broad experience in project management in media production and business development within the cultural and creative industries with particular focus on diversity. He is the General Manager of the festival. He also founded Arab Cinema in Sweden (ACIS), a company that works on distributing and promoting Arab films in Sweden.
MOHAMAD ABO WHATFA
Festival Coordinator
Mohamad graduated from Al-Azhar University in Gaza 2006, department of Graphic Design.
He worked for more than 10 years in a number of NGO’s and in a media and advertising companies as a graphic designer, photographer and news producer.
Mohamad has been working in the Malmö Arab Film Festival since 2016.
BATOUL ARDAT
MAFF Industry Days Coordinator
A talented actress who started taking her first steps in theater in 2010.
Graduated with a Bachelor of Sociology from Beirut Arab University in 2012 and directly started working at Al Jazeera channel until 2013.
Moved to Sweden 2015 and has been active working with art and culture since then.
Batoul has finished a one year program in performing arts and is now playing main roles in several projects.
LUBNA SALEEM
Administrator
Lubna has a Bachelor’s Degree in special education from Qatar and six years’ experience in customer service, leadership, training, and management. She has worked as a VIP guest coordinator at many large conferences, such as the conference Doha Goals. Lubna is currently preparing to begin her studies in the field of human rights.
AHMED SHAWKY
Artistic consultant
He is an Egyptian film critic, programmer, screenwriting developer and the Middle East head of development of “Viu” streaming platform. Publishing weekly articles about cinema and entertainment industry. He has also published six books Egyptian cinema. Shawky is currently the secretary general of Egyptian film critics association (EFCA), A FIPRESCI board member and the vice president of the African film critics’ federation (FAAC). He worked as a programmer for many film festivals including Cairo, Mumbai, Tripoli among others. He acted as jury in various festivals such as Locarno, Malmo, Oran, Shanghai, Eurasia, Transylvania, Macao, Sofia, Oran and Tetouan.
MOHAMED ATEF
Artistic consultant
One of the most influential programmers of film festivals in the Arab region. Programmer of El Gouna Film Festival GFF, the artistic director of Festival d’Alexandrie du Film Francophone FAFF. and a member of the selection committee for development and post-production grants for of CineGouna Platform (GFF industrial arm), and ‘Daw’ Competition for film support which is organized by the Ministry of Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Member of the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Film Critics Association.
SARA LUNDGREN
Artistic consultant
Academic background mainly in Linguistics and Literature. Has studied and worked in France, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia, and has professional experience of managing cultural projects and events, as well as of the museum and tourism sector. Currently working on her Master’s thesis in Middle East Studies at Lund University.