A trio of feminine movie and TV business execs — with loads of experience within the Center East area — is seeking to increase the output of the Dubai-based Ta Films shingle after making a splash in Cannes with Yemeni-Scottish director Sara Ishaq’s debut characteristic “The Station.”
Ta Movies was arrange in 2022 by Shivani Pandya Malhotra, who not too long ago stepped down as normal supervisor of Saudi Arabia’s Purple Sea Movie Pageant, and Sangeeta Desai, a former world COO at Fremantle and Group CEO at Dubai-based satellite tv for pc pay-TV and streaming service OSN. In 2025, they made a quantum leap by shopping for Jordan-based manufacturing firm Display screen Challenge, based by Nadia Eliewat, who now serves as Ta Movies’ CEO and artistic producer.
Ta Movies’ first characteristic was the Toronto-bowing 2023 drama “Yellow Bus” by Center East-based U.S. director Wendy Bednarz, which follows a mom’s quest for justice after struggling an unthinkable tragedy. Then got here Ishaq’s Yemen-set drama “The Station,” about sisters clashing over the right way to shield their younger brother from necessary enlistment in an armed group, that in Might premiered positively from Cannes Critics’ Week. The movie has been praised by Variety critic Jay Weissberg as “a long-gestating, female-centered project set in Yemen that’s well worth the wait.”
Ta Movies’ mission is now to “develop and produce elevated film and series content from the MENA region, as well as South Asia,” Pandya Malhotra informed Selection. They’ve a half-dozen tasks in varied phases of growth and plan to shepherd two to 3 movies per 12 months, a minimum of at this stage, she added.
Pandya Malhotra additionally identified that the corporate intends to choose tasks with an “artistically distinctive” stamp which are “commercially structured and viable, with a nice international reach.”
When it comes to financing, they’re investing in growth and utilizing a special financing mannequin for every movie, drawing on a mixture of sentimental cash obtainable within the area, potential co-production alternatives,and commissions from broadcasters and streamers.
“The key element is that we want to tell stories from unknown, underrepresented voices, and that we are very, very, talent-led,” she famous.
“The great thing about the three of us, is that a lot of the regional talent knows us,” she continued. “So many of them have been approaching us with some very interesting and unique projects.”
Tasks presently within the Ta Movies pipeline:
“Drowning” – This Saudi-set drama is one in all two characteristic movie tasks that Saudi director Mujtaba Saeed has within the works with Ta Movies. Saeed – who divides his time between Germany and Saudi Arabia – will make his characteristic movie debut later this 12 months when capturing is anticipated to begin on “Drowning” a few man decided to have his murderous father executed. He has solely 4 days to persuade the sufferer’s inheritor to decide on the dying penalty as an alternative of taking “blood money” (diya), the standard Islamic authorized observe the place the sufferer’s household agrees to pardon a convicted killer in trade for a money fee.
“Mecca, Berlin” – That is the opposite venture within the Ta Movies pipeline to be directed by Saeed. The plot focuses on a younger man named Yahya, who should journey from Mecca to Berlin for his father’s most cancers therapy, confronting previous traumas and discovering refuge in an encounter with a Syrian refugee nurse.
Pictured above, from left to proper: Nadia Eliewat, Shivani Pandya Malhotra, Sangeeta Desai.
