Digital entertainment giant Netflix has teamed up with Kuwait’s National Creative Industries Group (NCIG) to bring new writing talent to the screen, specifically writers from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The NCIG TV Writers’ Lab 6×6 programme will incubate and support six writers. Between them they will create six series projects which will be ready to pitch to Netflix and to other potential funders and exhibitors at the end of the process.
After an open call for submissions in November 2021, six writers were chosen for the programme and their names were announced in January 2022.
The final six are Kuwaiti writers Jassem Al- Qamis and Faisal Al-Balushi, and they are joined by Osama Bin Ali Shar, Muhammad Nidal Jalal Salam, Roland Fayadh Hassan and Dania Wassim Al-Tayeb who are all from Saudi Arabia.
If successful in creating a project through the programme and pitching it to Netflix, every writer has the potential to work with Netflix to see his or her work developed as a show which will be aired on the network. Should Netflix decline to develop any one of the projects, the writer will continue to own the intellectual property of that project entirely, and will then be free to pitch it to other potential producers or networks.
It’s not surprising that the NCIG is the vehicle through which this is happening in Kuwait. The NCIG has made it their mission to find and develop new Arabic media talent, and already has a large studio facility.
CEO Sheikha Al-Zain Sabah Al-Naser Al-Sabah came up with the concept of Lab 6×6. She has a long history of empowering young people through her work with Kuwait’s Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, as well as having a career in film production herself.
This opportunity is the first time a programme like this has been trialed in the region. It will hopefully be just the beginning of international cultural brands like Netflix recognising the importance of including talent and stories from the Arab world in their global distribution to audiences who want to enjoy them.