Panel: Production of Series in Saudi Arabia. International Co-productions and growing strategy

Redha Alhaidar is the Chairman of ROAA Media Ventures, a visionary holding company at the forefront of Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving media and entertainment industry.

He is a seasoned senior executive and board member with depth of experience in management, strategic communication, media, and public policy in Saudi Arabia and globally. An accomplished entrepreneur with excellent leadership and organizational skills, Alhaidar has founded several tech startups, including BitMal, a disruptive social currency and social marketplace.

Prior to establishing ROAA Media Ventures, Alhaidar was the President of the General Commission of Audiovisual Media, Saudi Arabia’s media industry regulatory authority. He also worked at the Capital Market Authority, Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority, and other key government agencies and national committees in the Kingdom.

Alhaidar was also a Board member of Misk Foundation, the non-profit foundation established by H.R.H. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to discover, develop and empower Saudi youth to become active participants in the future economy. He was the former Chairman of Manga Production, an animation house and video games developer and also served as a Board Member of Tihama, an Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing Company.

Alhaidar holds a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; a Master’s degree in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University; and Bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Design & Development from American University.

Osama Alkhurayji is the Executive Director of ROAA Media Ventures, a visionary holding company at the forefront of Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving media and entertainment industry.

He is also an award-winning director, producer, and CEO of Hakawati Entertainment. He began directing and producing films in 2007, and despite the lack of market demand in Saudi Arabia at the time, his works have been awarded both locally and internationally.

Osama later earned a Master’s degree in filmmaking from New York Film Academy in Burbank, California, where he got his Hollywood experience in cinema and TV. Since then, he’s produced content with several regional TV networks, theaters, distributors, and streaming platforms such as SBC, Shahid, MBC, Vox Cinemas and OSN.

Osama is also an active figure in the content sector, having founded and co-founded several leading content and production companies, such as Integrated Production, Qutrob, and Hakawati Entertainment-one of the most prominent startups in visual content production and literary management in Saudi Arabia.

In 2022, Osama created an alliance with Hakawati Entertainment to push boundaries in the types of content created by connecting Hollywood talents and Saudi creatives to foster healthy and competitive opportunities in the film industry.

María Bestar is a director, screenwriter, actress, singer and composer.

After a successful 15-year career in the music industry where she released three albums with Sony Music and sold hundreds of thousands of albums in Latin America, Maria ventures into the world of film and television as a writer, director and actress.

She graduated from the ARS MEDIA screenwriting school with the best in Spain, in New York, she attended the Film Directing workshop with Solar Productions and in Miami she trained as an actress under the guidance of María Banda at Area Stage Company.

In recent years, she has worked with Televisión Española, Telemundo, Televisa, NBC Studios and Netflix as an actress and developing several fiction series, including “No te puedes esconder” winner of Best Series of the Year at the New York Film Festival . He recently co-wrote the series “Pirates of Arabia” for the Saudi production company Hakawatti.

After starring in “La Noche” in 2022. Maria begins work on the pre-production of her debut film, “Encerradas”, to be shot in 2024.

In 2023 she shot her first short film “You’re not crazy” as director, screenwriter and actress, obtaining the support of the United Nations by aligning herself with its 2030 agenda. So far “No estas Loca” has received the Best Director Award at the XX Alicante Film Festival, as well as Official Selection at the XXXV L’Alfas del Pi Film Festival, the VIII Santaella Short Film Festival, the 8th Mostra de Curts de Moscatell and the II Mostra de Cine Social Mirades Fest, the Certamen Internacional de Cine Social in Zaragoza, the Asto International in Greece, and the Coronado Film Festival in San Diego among others.