Screen International has unveiled the lineup of actors and filmmakers chosen for Arab Stars of Tomorrow 2025, the ninth edition of the new talent programme for upcoming Middle East and North Africa talents.
This year’s selection comprises Qatar-based Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani; Algerian writer, director and showrunner Zoulikha Tahar; Saudi actress Lamar Faden; Lebanese actor Josef Akiki; and Palestinian actor Karim Daoud Anaya.
Arab Stars of Tomorrow celebrates Arab talent from across the MENA region, highlighting the hottest up-and-coming actors, writers, directors and producers who have the highest crossover appeal to make an impact in the international industry.
Click on the links below to read the individual profiles of each of this year’s stars.
- Suzannah Mirghani, filmmaker (Sudan-Qatar)
- Zoulikha Tahar, writer, director (Algeria)
- Lamar Faden, actress (Saudi Arabia)
- Josef Akiki, actor (Lebanon)
- Karim Daoud Anaya, actor (Palestine)
This is the fourth year of working with Red Sea International Film Festival on presenting the selection, alongside our esteemed partners at Film AlUla who once again hosted the photoshoot on the grounds of their state-of-the-art production facilities.
The 2025 lineup was curated by E. Nina Rothe, a freelance international journalist and Screen contributor on the MENA region.
Palestinian actor Karim Daoud Anaya made his screen debut in Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 - the territory’s Oscar submission. He has lived in Berlin since 2015.
Lebanese actor Josef Akiki drew international attention with a role in Charlie Kaufman’s short film How To Shoot A Ghost alongside Jessie Buckley, which premiered in Venice this year.
Jeddah-based Lamar Faden made her screen debut in Saudi Arabia’s Oscar entry Hijra, the second film from Shahad Ameen.
Algeria-born, Paris-based Zoulikha Tahar is the first series showrunner to be featured in Arab Stars of Tomorrow, with her debut series El’Sardines winning a special mention at this year’s Series Mania.
Qatar-based Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani had made six shorts before developing her 2020 award winner Al-Sit into the feature Cotton Queen, which had its world premiere this year in Venice Critics’ Week.
Stars of Tomorrow is an offshoot of Screen International’s UK and Ireland Stars of Tomorrow initiative, which has run continuously for 21 years and brought the spotlight to UK talent at the very start of their careers - from Benedict Cumberbatch and Emily Blunt in 2004 to Owen Cooper in 2025. Stars of Tomorrow has since spread its wings to include Spain Stars of Tomorrow, Scotland Rising Stars, Ireland Rising Stars and Arab Stars of Tomorrow, which was hosted for the first time by Red Sea in 2022.
Arab Stars of Tomorrow alumni that year included Tunisian actor Adam Bessa (Harka) and the French Moroccan director Sofia Alaoui. The initiative launched in 2016 in Dubai, featuring Lebanese helmer Mounia Akl, Tunisian actress Mariam Alferjani, Jordanian director and writer Amjad Al-Rasheed, Syrian actor Samir Ismail and Moroccan helmer and screenwriter Alaa Eddine Aljem in its first edition.
Rothe said: “It is a great time for Arab cinema, with more Oscar-hopeful projects than ever before from the Region. The group we have assembled together for this edition of Arab Stars of Tomorrow reflects the vibrancy of the industry, as well as the undeniable crossover appeal finally rising out of the MENA.”
Matt Mueller, editor-in-chief, Screen International, said: ”We feel confident these five talents have a very bright future ahead of them, in step with the rising vibrancy and influence of MENA cinema.
”We thank our curator for this year’s lineup, E Nina Rothe, a Screen International contributor with long experience of reporting from the region. We also thank our partners at Red Sea, Film AlUla and DDA for all of their support in bringing this year’s Arab Stars of Tomorrow fruition.”
Profiles by E Nina Rothe; Photography by Eamonn M McCormack/Getty Images for Film AlUla
No comments yet