Marouan Omara is an Egyptian filmmaker and educator working across hybrid documentary, speculative fiction and collaborative practice. His films explore memory, power, disappearance and the politics of image-making.
photo credit to Doreen Schwarz
His work includes CROP (2013), co-directed with Johanna Domke; Azziara (The Visit) (2015), made with Nadia Mounier and Islam Kamal; One Plus One Makes a Pharaoh's Chocolate Cake (2017), made with Islam Kamal; and Dreamaway (2018), co-directed with Johanna Domke. These films have screened at the Berlinale, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, BFI London, DOK Leipzig, Ji.hlava and Yamagata. Dreamaway was named Best Egyptian Film released in cinemas in 2019 by the Egyptian Film Critics Association and shortlisted for Egypt's submission to the Academy Awards.
He is currently developing The Missing Planet, a near-future noir feature co-directed with Tom Rosenberg. The project received the Eurimages Co-production Development Award and is supported by Creative Europe MEDIA and the Doha Film Institute.
Alongside filmmaking, Omara teaches, curates and develops platforms for Arab and African cinema. He is Assistant Professor and Course Director of the BA (Hons) Film Production pathway at Coventry University's branch campus in Cairo, The Knowledge Hub Universities. He led the Short Film Competition at the Cairo International Film Festivals and co-founded A Kiss in the Desert, a collective supporting emerging filmmakers from Egypt. His PhD in Literature, Film and Theatre Studies by Creative Practice at the University of Essex examines hybrid documentary and the politics of absence in Egypt.
Filmography:
* The Missing Planet (2028), with Tom Rosenberg. In-development
* Dreamaway (2018), with Johanna Domke
* One plus one makes a pharaoh's chocolate cake (2017) in collaboration with Islam Kamal
* Azziara “The Visit” (2015), with Nadia Mounier, in collaboration with Islam Kamal
* CROP (2013), with Johanna Domke