Watermelon Pictures
{{Short description|American film company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Watermelon Pictures
| logo = Watermelon Pictures logo.png
| type = Private
| founder =
| area_served = United States
| key_people =
| industry = Film industry
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| foundation = {{Start date and age|2024}}
| homepage = {{URL|http://watermelonpictures.com}}
}}
Watermelon Pictures is an American film production and distribution company founded in 2024 by
Badie and Hamza Ali. The company has distributed Israelism (2023), Life Is Beautiful (2023), From Ground Zero (2024), To a Land Unknown (2024), and The Encampments (2025).
History
In April 2024, it was announced Badie and Hamza Ali had launched Watermelon Pictures a company specializing in film production, financing, and distribution, with Alana Hadid set to serve as creative director.{{cite web|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/watermelon-pictures-launches-alana-hadid-named-creative-director-302108488.html|title=Watermelon Pictures Launches, Alana Hadid Named Creative Director|website=PR Newswire|date=April 4, 2024|access-date=February 3, 2025}}{{cite news |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2024/07/10/alana-hadid-watermelon-pictures/|title=How Alana Hadid's Watermelon Pictures aims to 'dispel the propaganda' against Palestinians |newspaper=The National|first=Razmig|last=Bedirian|date=July 10, 2024|access-date=February 3, 2025}} The mission of the company is to showcase Palestinians and Arabs, who have been poorly represented and dehumanized in mainstream media.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecut.com/article/alana-hadids-watermelon-pictures-is-the-palestinian-a24.html|title=Alana Hadid Wants to Build the "Palestinian A24"|website=The Cut|first=Danya|last=Issawi|date=June 11, 2024|access-date=February 3, 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/alana-hadid-on-reclaiming-the-palestinian-narrative-through-art-and-film-18187091|title=Alana Hadid on reclaiming the Palestinian narrative through art and film|website=TRT World|date=July 21, 2024|access-date=February 3, 2025}}
The company's first release Walled Off, a documentary focusing on The Walled Off Hotel, directed by Vin Arfuso, and executive produced by Roger Waters, Kweku Mandela and Anwar Hadid was released on May 3, 2024.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2024/04/alana-hadid-launches-film-company-watermelon-pictures-documentary-walled-off-1235875757/|title=Alana Hadid Leading Film Label Watermelon Pictures, First Movie Is Palestine Documentary 'Walled Off'|website=Deadline Hollywood|first=Andreas|last=Wiseman|date=April 4, 2024|access-date=February 3, 2025}}
Watermelon Pictures has launched in May 2025 a streaming service, Watermelon+, "that will serve as a home for its upcoming releases as well as several decades’ worth of Palestinian cinema," with the rights to 70 films "including Oscar nominees Omar, Five Broken Cameras and Theeb".{{cite news |last1=Horton |first1=Adrian |title=‘We need to do something’: the company releasing Palestinian films no one else will |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/14/watermelon-pictures-palestinian-film-distributor |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=14 May 2025}}
Distributed films
name="GuardianMay2025" />
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|watermelonpictures.com}}
{{Film Studio}}
Category:American companies established in 2024
Category:American independent film studios
Category:Entertainment companies established in 2024
Category:Film distributors of the United States