MAD Solutions is announcing a new strategic partnership with IRTH during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, bringing together the two companies’ complementary expertise to develop, package and support film, television and other entertainment projects from across the Arab world for regional and international markets.
The announcement comes as MAD Solutions marks a significant presence at this year’s Venice Film Festival, with two films represented at the festival: Al Baraneya, directed by Ashgan El-Hamus, screening as part of Giornate degli Autori, and Conversations with the Sea, directed by Muayad Alayan, selected for the Venice Spotlight section. MAD will also present its annual award at Final Cut in Venice, marking the 12th year of the company’s support for the programme, which supports films from Africa and the Arab world through post-production and international industry opportunities.
The partnership with IRTH expands MAD’s activities further upstream into creative development, bringing together IRTH’s growing development operation and network of writers and creative professionals with MAD Solutions’ extensive regional and international network across distribution and sales, talent management, production, and PR and marketing.
IRTH has built a creative development operation around an established network of writers and creative professionals from multiple Arab nationalities, bringing different voices, cultures and perspectives into the development process. The company works across original content creation and writing, as well as script development, script doctoring and creative consultancy for projects at different stages.
Led by acclaimed Egyptian author, screenwriter and producer Haitham Dabbour, CEO and founder, IRTH’s cross-regional network of writers is central to its ambition to originate and develop stories from across the Arab world rather than focusing on any single market. Dabbour has a diverse body of literary work spanning novels and poetry, with several of his novels topping bestseller lists, including Devoured by Seven Lean Cows, Moses Cross and Publication Ban. His screenwriting credits include Gunshot, which premiered at El Gouna Film Festival, and Photocopy, which also premiered at El Gouna and went on to win the festival’s Best Arab Feature Film award. He also wrote and co-produced The Tale of Ahl El Daye, which had its European premiere at the Berlinale’s Generation programme. His short film 32B won the Tanit d’Or at the Carthage Film Festival and the Best Narrative Short Award at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. His upcoming film Bahr is currently in post-production.
The partnership combines IRTH’s creative and development infrastructure with MAD Solutions’ extensive regional and international network across distribution and sales, talent management, production, and PR and marketing. Together, the companies aim to create a 360-degree platform capable of taking projects from their earliest creative stages through packaging, market positioning and connections with producers, studios, broadcasters, platforms and international partners.
The alliance will develop original films, television series and other formats, including projects built around talent represented by MAD Celebrity. It will also work with third-party producers and projects requiring development support — from early-stage writing and creative consultancy to rewriting, script doctoring and preparing material for regional and international markets.
“IRTH has always been about bringing strong writers and different Arab voices together and giving ideas the development they need,” said Haitham Dabbour. “MAD’s regional and international reach gives us the opportunity to take that work further and open new possibilities for the projects and writers we work with.”
MAD Solutions co-founders Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab said in a joint statement: “Development is a key part of MAD’s regional and international expansion, and IRTH brings a strong creative infrastructure and a diverse network of Arab writers to that strategy. Together, we can originate projects while also offering filmmakers and producers the development support they need to strengthen existing ones.”
For MAD Celebrity, the partnership also creates a more direct route between talent management and project creation.
“We don’t only want to find opportunities for our talent; we want to help create them,” said Kareem Samy, executive director of MAD Celebrity. “Working with IRTH allows us to bring talent into the creative process much earlier and develop projects around distinctive voices and capabilities.”
MAD Solutions and IRTH are developing a pipeline spanning original projects, talent-driven projects and third-party development and consultancy assignments, with the first projects from the partnership to be announced separately.
Established in 2010, MAD Solutions operates through a network of specialized companies and industry initiatives, including MAD World, focusing on international sales of Arab films; MAD Distribution, handling the sales and distribution of Arab films across the Arab world; MAD Celebrity, providing full talent management and representation for both on- and off-screen talent; MAD Marketing, specializing in entertainment marketing and publicity; and MAD Content. The group also founded the Arab Cinema Center (ACC), a year-round promotional and networking platform connecting Arab cinema with the international film industry through major festivals, markets and industry initiatives worldwide.
