Hadi El Bagoury
With his diverse experience in cinema, TVdramas, in addition to commercials and music video, Director Hadi El Bagoury's experience was not only about making mere attempts in these fields, but it was about using his experience through alternative creative media. For example, he made his 16 mm series A'ard Khas which is the first series of its kind in the Middle East. He also directed the thriller film Warda, the first Egyptian feature to be shot in Found-footage style. The diversity of Hadi El Bagoury's experience was shaped earlier through his family; his father, Gameel El Bagoury, is a renowned Journalist and TV Producer, while hisaunt is the late renowned actress Zizi El Badrawy and his brother is the late Director/Scriptwriter Sameh El Bagoury. Hadi started his career as an Executive Producer then he shifted to directing towards the late 1990s in the fields of TV commercials and music video clips, through which he worked with the most prominent Arab singers.As an Advertising Director, he directedworksfor several multi-national advertising agencies such as BBDO, JWT, FP7, and Leo Burnett. Based in Cairo,Hadi's shoots are filmed between Dubai, Lebanon, and Morocco, Such experience has helped him to co-establish The Producers with Executive Producer Hani Osama in 2001. Their goal was to establish a leading pioneer production company Hadi made his way to the world of cinema through his film Wahed Sahih which was screened in 2011. Not only was the film a significantly successful hit in theatres, but it was also the festival opener at the Dubai International Film Festival 2011 as part of Muhr Arab Feature competition, and won the Best Directorial Debut award from the Egyptian National Film Center. El Bagoury has recently directed the spine-chilling horror Warda, which was also produced by The Producers and has become a huge hit in Egypt and several Arab countries. The film stirred a wave of controversy on the social media platforms, grabbing the attention of visual media for its unconventional story, which is based on true events. Warda is also the first Egyptian film to use the Found-footage style, a growing independent genre of filmmaking where all or an essential part of a film depends on discovered video recordings, often left behind by missing or dead protagonists. Married to actress,Yasmine Raeis, El Bagoury is currently a new dad in his forties. His approach will always combine a passion for storytelling through creating optical compositions within an interesting frame for the viewer. His greatest passion is to realize such ideas on screen.
