Basma Abdulkarim

Basma Abdulkarim brings hands-on experience with implementing Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and National Transformation Plan. She leads teams creating innovative strategies for developing Saudi Arabia’s cultural sector, and has built intercultural programs to deepen global communication about Saudi Arabia’s culture and history.

Based in Riyadh, Basma previously served in Saudi Arabia’s new Ministry of Culture, where she managed the Culture Fund initiative to develop the Ministry’s strategy and operating model. She led the international relations initiatives for the Saudi Film Council portfolio and developed investment strategies for Saudi and international companies specializing in film production and content development. Basma was the extra’s casting coordinator on the production team for “Born a King”, the first

Saudi/international feature-length film. Prior to her work at the Ministry of Culture, Basma served in Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an international affairs officer at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Berlin. She managed investment cases for Saudi-German companies and laid the groundwork for public relations strategies with international bureaus for culture and economic development. She enabled a new bilateral communications platform for German and Saudi companies seeking investment opportunities and planned intercultural dialogue programs bringing together German and Saudi leaders. Currently, Basma is a senior associate at Jones Group International. She also is the Director of Operations for the Jones Group Riyadh office, where she is the primary connection between the Riyadh team and the USA office on all administrative, business and operational matters; and the interface with all local business partners and government relations. Basma earned her Master’s degree in Management Science from the European Business School in Wiesbaden and her bachelor’s degree at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh. She is a graduate of the Diplomats Training Program of the Federal Foreign Office in Germany. Basma speaks Arabic, English, German and Portuguese.

Todd Nims

Todd Albert Nims is a Saudi-born American producer heavily involved in the Gulf region’s cinema and entertainment development. Mr. Nims is known for producing the feature films JOUD (2019) and BORN A KING (2019) for release to cinemas in 2019. He held the Film Producer position at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s state-of-the-art hub for inspiring creativity and global culture, Ithra, for six years where he established the Kingdom’s first cinema and assisted in launching the first Saudi Film Days (saudifilmdays.com) program to provide funding and development to Saudi filmmakers while screening their films in Hollywood. Mr. Nims owns a AB Media, a media consultancy business based in the USA and Empty Quarter Entertainment, a tech media company, based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Yaser Binabdulrahman

Yaser B. is an active young Saudi Director/ Editor. In 2018 Yaser went to Los Angeles to take a filmmaking course, while he was in school he managed to direct his first short film and work on sets with some of the elites in the field like Meshal Aljaser. After coming back to Saudi Arabia Yaser got an opportunity to work with one of the best rental houses in Saudi “EQEW”. While working for EQEW Yaser got a chance to get a three-month scholarship from the Saudi Film Council for an editing course in one of the best film schools worldwide “University of Southern California”. After coming back from the states Yaser directed his first big project with a full professional crew for medical PSA competitions “W3i”. After that competition, Yaser directed a commercial for an application for the Medical ministry that has been showed for the 4th global ministerial summit. In 2019, Yaser flew to Los Angeles to Co-direct a Saudi feature film with his brother Maan titled “Junoon” it will hit Saudi theater in December 2019.