News Summary

• Egyptian cinema once dominated film production across the Arab world, but output fell dramatically from its late-20th-century heights.
• More recently, production has shown signs of recovery, rising from 51 feature films in 2022 to 67 in 2023.
• For veteran Syrian producer Mohammad Mashish, capitalizing on that momentum starts with the screenplay.
• For Lebanese producer Ziad Srouji, reaching audiences beyond the region does not mean making Arab films that resemble foreign ones.
• The bigger obstacles, he believes, are often structural.