Danny Sawaf is the founder & CEO of Oceana Studios, and oversees all operations of the company, including development, production, finance, management, distribution and strategic planning.

Having successfully produced movies that have been released by Universal Pictures and other major distributors across the globe in addition to executive producing commercials for major global brands like Mercedes, Jeep and IKEA, Danny has a deep and thorough grasp of the complexities of the media industry and expertise in film acquisitions, development, intellectual property, film debt, equity, pre-sales, distribution, production, tax rebates, completion bonds and guilds. Moreover, Danny has distributed movies with the top cinema chains in the Middle East and Africa including Vox, Reel, Roxy, Muvi, AMC, Novo, Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro.

Danny graduated from the George Mason University School of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Management and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts, Cinematic Arts, Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

Mohamad Ahmad | Chief Operating Officer, Oceana Studios

Mohamad Ahmad is the Chief Operating Officer of Oceana Studios.

With over a decade of experience, Mohamad is specialized in distributing theatrical and non-theatrical content all over the Middle East and North Africa having distributed around 130 to 150 different movies per year with previous executive positions held at Nstars and Gulf Film.

Mohamad oversees day-to-day distribution operations, finance, business development and implementation of the company’s strategies. In addition, Mohamad focuses on building strategic relationships with media companies in the region in an effort to expand the company’s capabilities. He has dealt with a wide range of major, semi-major and independent studios from all over the world including Universal, MGM and STX.

Abdallah Yassine is the Chief Financial Officer of Oceana Studios

Abdallah has more than 20 years of experience performing complex financial analyses and forecasts for movies covering a broad spectrum of films generating revenue from theatrical and non-theatrical platforms. Furthermore, Abdallah oversees all of the financial activity at the company including financial statements, invoicing, cash collection, box office collection, audit and account reconciliation.

Before joining Oceana Studios, Abdallah was the Head of Finance and Operations at Shooting Stars which was the official sub-distributor of Warner Bros. in the Middle East whereby Abdallah oversaw all of its financial activity in the region.

Abdallah graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Finance.

Leen is the Head of Development at Oceana Studios.

Leen has an extensive background in film development where she has experience acquiring and developing IP, developing scripts, and tracking and packaging world-class directors and actors. She also has on-set experience understanding the workflow of a feature film and understands the complexities of the entertainment industry and what needs to be done at every stage of the production process. Her extreme attention to detail has given her the ability to lead editorial feedback on scripts while maintaining regular communication with key creatives on projects to foster an environment whereby the creative process can flourish.

Leen graduated with a Bachelor in Arts in French Literature.

Mahmoud is the Theatrical Distribution Operations Manager at Oceana Studios.

Mahmoud coordinates and liaises with all the cinema chains in the Middle East and North Africa to release movies being distributed by Oceana Studios. Moreover, he handles the weekly coordination of release dates and verifies showtime schedules and performs tasks associated with theatrical releases such as working with cinema chain programming staff and management to choose the best times and slots for theatrical releases. He has extensive experience with the technical side of distribution involving DCP and KDM workflow and handles censorship related issues.

Sameer is the Film Distribution Coordinator at Oceana Studios.

Sameer coordinates and liaises with labs and exhibitors to release movies being distributed by Oceana Studios to theaters and all other platforms including SVOD, AVOD, PVOD and TVOD. Moreover, he has extensive technical experience handling DCP and KDM and all technical issues related to distribution and obtaining approvals from censorships boards all across the Middle East and North Africa and handles marketing related tasks such as posters, billboards, radio and social media.