Following her passion, taking every step that needs to be taken to be who she aspires to be one day, is a one of a kind Egyptian filmmaker living in the United States, the beautiful artist Amina Nada.

She doesn’t only make and produce movies, she is also a great inspiration for all of us to stand up and pursue our dreams! So we couldn’t resist knowing more about her story…

Where did it start? How did she make it to the BAFTA? What are her thoughts about the film industry? And more!

Being always passionate about cinema, Amina Nada decided to obtain her master’s degree in filmmaking in the US; not only to pursue her dreams but ambitious to tell stories that people never think they existed before, stories that were never told about Arabic women, people of colour, and the Arab world making sure that the storylines and narrative are not whitewashed or stereotyped.

Amina’s journey in the filmmaking industry was filled with great successes and turning points in her career; such as the variety show she produced when she was at school getting nominated for College Emmy’s Awards, after her graduation! And luckily having what it takes, she gets hired right after school to be production coordinator in a newly established company.

“It was luck and hard work, working 20 hours a week while being a full-time student and above that also working on set all the time, I don’t remember having a full night sleep for 3 years because I knew that I have to be hustling all the time and through that hustle that what landed me my first job which was a turning point in my career.”

Believing in the power of change, Amina had the chance to work on one of Netflix’s recent productions Mosul, the first fully Arabic film by an American company.

This changed her ideology on how the industry works; bearing the sacrifices that she had to do to finish that project, as she knew the importance of the story behind Mosul and it needs to be told.

“Excited to know how the world is going to perceive it, as it is! It’s not an easy thing to do, knowing that it’s going to be a hard film to market to the American community.

People here don’t like to watch foreign films and read subtitles, so taking that risk just makes you understand that there’s a small niche people who truly believed that there could be a change.”

Through that experience with its excellent and bad Amina have managed to achieve tremendous success and hop on another more significant opportunity, she got to work on The Dissident, which premiered in Sundance 2020.

“Being an immigrant you can’t be fully employed in a company, you’re always freelancing, where you’re jumping from one project to another and as much as it’s nerve-racking, it gives you the freedom to explore more of what you want to do.”

Amina chose to trust the power of telling stories in the film industry, believing that it can speak up about the suffering of people, depicts the reality of stigmatised society, and narrate a whole nation’s history; influencing the culture, politics, laws, and more importantly, it’s a world-changing form of art.

“It depends on what you see on television, how you resonate with it.

It could affect your decision on how you treat people on the street and if those stories are going to be told by bigot white men, we’re only going to produce more bigotry.”

Are you interested to know more about Amina Nada’s upcoming works?

Stay tuned for her upcoming TV show which it’s script landed her the BBC America Diversity Award through the BAFTA at the beginning of her career.

She is also writing a new exciting TV show that depicts the global social split between individualism and equality for all, named Two Nations.

We are sure this is only the beginning of much greater productions done by an exceptional artist Amina Nada.