Marwa Zein is a Sudanese film director, scriptwriter and producer whose debut documentary Khartoum Offside and her short fiction films A Game and One Week Two Days have received wide critical acclaim. Khartoum Offside earned multiple distinctions, including Best Documentary at the Africa Movie Academy Awards, Best First Work at Carthage International Film Festival JCC by TV5 Monde, Best Documentary at FCAT in Spain and a Special Mention at the Malmo Arab Film Festival in Sweden. The film premiered at the Berlinale Forum and was selected for leading international festivals including Visions du Reel, CPH DOX, Hot Docs, Sheffield, JCC, IDFA and CIFF.
Zein was born in Saudi Arabia and lived in Egypt. After studying chemical engineering at Cairo University for three years, she shifted her path to cinema and entered the Academy of Arts in Cairo in 2005, graduating with honourable mention in 2009. She is currently pursuing a masters degree in film in Germany.
Between 2009 and 2015 she worked as assistant director with several renowned Egyptian filmmakers, including Halah Khalil, Khairi Beshara, Dawoud Abdelsayed and Shady Fakharany. She also served as a festival programmer for the Sudan Independent Film Festival from 2014 to 2017. In 2017 she founded her production company ORE Productions, based in Khartoum.
