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Fawaz Al-Matrouk was born in Kuwait and grew up in Canada. His short films have played in festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Dubai, and Clermont-Ferrand, winning awards for writing, directing, and audience choice. Fawaz completed a BA in history at the University of Toronto, where he studied Arab-Western relations, and an Mfa in cinematic arts at the University of Southern California, where his thesis film “To Rest In Peace” was mentored by Ridley Scott. Now he directs commercials, including Subaru spots for Japanese television, and writes science fiction prose, published in Nature and the classic Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. His feature in development has won the Sffilm Rainin Grant and took part in the Sundance Screenwriters Intensive. Fawaz draws on his personal experience to explore stories of our power to confront the unknown.

The film begins with a mother, Mona asking her 8-year-old son, Anwar, to say goodbye to a dead pigeon inside a box,...

Filmmakers from Ukraine, Syria, and Tanzania to receive FilmAid Award

The Ukranian group DocuDays, known for its human rights documentaries, will be honored by international film organization FilmAid at its annual benefit on Oct. 12 in New York City. DocuDays is currently building the War Archive, a database of testimonies and evidence of crimes from the war against Russia.

Syrian American actor and filmmaker Jay Abdo (pictured) and young Tanzanian filmmaker Martha Ngwada will also be honored at the event.

Abdo stars in “Neighbors,” a film coming to theaters in December. Ngwada, a former stand-up comedian, is mentoring new filmmakers through FilmAid and making short films about sexual and gender-based violence and other issues affecting young Tanzanians.

“We haven’t done anything like the War Archive before, but we just felt that it was really important. These materials could be used during war crime investigations and for future documentary films,” says DocuDays’ Julia Kartashova,...

Syrian-American actor Jay Abdo (“Hologram for the King”) is set to play the lead in “Broadcast,” a drama about the atrocities of the Syrian civil war that will mark the directorial debut of U.S. actor and producer Grant Cramer.

Cramer has produced several indie pics of various genres, including Afghanistan-set Special Forces thriller “Lone Survivor,” which was shot in New Mexico. He more recently produced the Nicolas Cage horror-comedy “Willy’s Wonderland.”

Cramer initially came on board “Broadcast” as a producer and subsequently made it his passion project and directorial debut, according to a statement.

Abdo (pictured) was a big star in Syria before fleeing his homeland for the U.S. to escape persecution after speaking out against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The actor is boarding “Broadcast” as both the pic’s protagonist and co-producer.

Once in the U.S., Abdo changed his first name from Jihad...

American History X director Tony Kaye is looking to cast an artificially intelligent robot in his upcoming comedy 2nd Born. Kaye and producer Sam Khoze are looking for a way around the use of computer generated effects in favor of a physical A.I. robot as an actor, which will be trained in different techniques. Kaye and Khoze are hoping the robot will receive Screen Actors Guild recognition. 2nd Born is the sequel to 1st Born, which is an indie comedy directed by Ali Atshani and stars Val Kilmer, Tom Berenger, Greg Grunberg, Jay Abdo, Taylor Cole, Reza Sixo Safai, William Baldwin, Denise Richards, and Robert Knepper.

Tony Kaye hopes to train the robot in many different acting techniques for 2nd Born. It isn't clear how the move will work out logistically, but Kaye is serious about this next endeavor. Details are scarce for now, but Kaye and producer Sam...

Exclusive: As the advancement of technology continues to replace the need for human labor, American History X director Tony Kaye is undertaking a new — and maybe controversial — step in filmmaking by employing an Artificial Intelligent (A.I.) actor as the lead in his next film, 2nd Born.

Unlike Robin Williams’ 1999 film Bicentennial Man or the Steven Spielberg-directed A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Kaye is aiming to cast a real robot, who will be trained in different acting methods and techniques. The idea, which originated from Kaye and producer Sam Khoze, is to forgo the use of computer-generated effects in favor of a physical A.I. robot as an actor, who they are hoping will get SAG recognition.

2nd Born is the sequel to 1st Born, an indie comedy directed by Ali Atshani and starring Val Kilmer, Tom Berenger, Greg Grunberg, Jay Abdo, Taylor Cole, Reza Sixo Safai, William Baldwin, Denise Richards and Robert Knepper.

Heroes alumni Greg Grunberg and Taylor Cole have been added to the cast of the Ali Atshani-directed comedy 1st Born, a U.S./Iranian co-production. The two join Val Kilmer, William Baldwin, Robert Knepper, Jay Abdo and Armin Amiri in the film, which follows a young mixed-nationality couple, Iranian born Ben and American Kate, who are experiencing complications in their first pregnancy. This forces the whole extended family to put aside their differences and come together…...

William Baldwin (The Squid and the Whale, Flatliners) and Jay Abdo (A Hologram for the King, Queen of the Desert) are set to co-star opposite Val Kilmer in the indie comedy 1st Born, from Iranian director Ali Atshani. The film, a Iranian-us joint production, follows young newlywed couple, Iranian born Ben and American Kate. When their first pregnancy has complications, it takes the whole family to come together, which is no small feat. Ben's father Hamid (Adbo) a virulent…...

Title: Queen of the Desert Director: Werner Herzog Cast: Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Damian Lewis, Robert Pattinson, Jay Abdo, Jenny Agutter, David Calder, Christopher Fulford. Werner Herzog returns with an incredible story about a Victorian woman who became an inspiration for pioneering and influential females, by pursuing a different path than the one set by […]

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Hello again, dear readers. I’m guessing a lot of you got out to see Jurassic World this past weekend, considering how much money it made, and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. And as the summer movie season continues, the Trailer Trashin’ column is back from its recent absence, with a look at the international trailer for director Werner Herzog’s new film Queen of the Desert.

Premise: A chronicle of the life of Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman), an English traveler, writer, archeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.

My take: German filmmaker Werner Herzog is a fascinating figure in every sense of the word. He has directed dozens of films, both fictional stories and documentaries, and established a style unlike that of anyone else in cinema. In the process, he has gone all...