The creators will be given 6 months to use the funds to develop their projects, after which they can pitch them to Netflix executives Netflix MENA’s Nuha El-Tayeb: We want to use our scale and influence to provide Arab talent and filmmakers with a platform to gain fans globally DUBAI: Netflix and the Middle East Media Initiative have joined forces to offer four grants of $30,000 to writers that participated in the MEMI Summer Program, to help them develop their projects. “We want to use our scale and influence to provide Arab talent and filmmakers with a platform to gain fans globally,” Nuha El-Tayeb, director of content acquisitions at Netflix MENA, told Arab News. Each year, MEMI selects 12 or more mid-career or up-and-coming writers from the region and invites them to spend five weeks in Los Angeles workshopping their ideas for TV series in a writer’s room overseen by a professional American showrunner. As part of its ongoing partnership with MEMI, Netflix chose Sultan Tamer and Summer Shesha from Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Essam Elsayed from Egypt, and writing partners Karim Ariqat and Mohammad Ali Al-Nablsea from Jordan to receive the grants. They will have six months to use the funding either to assemble a writer’s room, extend their stay in the US so that they can continue to work with MEMI instructors, or hire a Netflix-approved consultant to advise them on the continued development of their series. At the end of that time they will have the opportunity to pitch their fully developed projects to Netflix. “There’s an incredible caliber of talent and creativity in the Arab world and it’s only going to grow in the coming years,” El-Tayeb said. “To serve as a meaningful part of the creative communities in the Arab world, we are working with industry partners to provide creators with the tools they need to tell the best version of their stories.” Netflix has a longstanding partnership with MEMI. It has hosted masterclasses for MEMI alumni on creative writing and pitching and each year it also offers graduates of the Summer Program an annual opportunity to pitch projects to Netflix executives. “What makes both MEMI and Netflix MENA unique is their access to top global resources, combined with the expertise of their Arab executives, many of who come from grassroots movements of the creative economy,” said Hisham Fageeh, head of MEMI. Some of the region’s most successful writers and filmmakers, including Sarah Taibah from Saudi Arabia and Egyptians Amr Salama, Tamer Mohsen and Mariam Naoum, have participated in the MEMI program.