SUAD BUSHNAQ | COMPOSER | CANADIAN JORDANIAN Arab Cinema Center

SUAD BUSHNAQ

COMPOSER

CANADIAN JORDANIAN

CAREER HIGHLIGHT(S):
Suad Bushnaq is a multi-award-winning music composer with over 40 film credits, including features and shorts that screened at festivals such as Venice, Locarno, Hot Docs, and Edinburgh. She was also selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s Spot the Composer Program in 2021 and the SESAC film scoring residency in LA. Her awards include a Hollywood Music in Media Award for her Orchestral piece TOMORROW, and a Best Original Score at the Fine Arts Film Festival in LA for JASMINE ROAD, amongst others. In the last couple of years, she scored HANGING GARDENS, which premiered at the 79th edition of Venice; Hani Khalifa’s FLIGHT 404, which was her first Egyptian film; the Saudi thriller FROM THE ASHES; the Emirati film MOUNTAIN BOY, Netflix’s Saudi original series CRASHING EID; and the Saudi film BASMA, which is penned by and stars Fatima Al Banawi. Additionally, she is a board member of the Screen Composers' Guild of Canada and a member of the Alliance for Women Film Composers.

TWELVE-MONTH HIGHLIGHT(S):
Films: Suad scored the music for HOBAL, a Saudi box office hit in 2024, and YUNAN by director Ameer Fakher Eldin, which premiered at the 75th Berlinale and drew praise for its powerful soundtrack.
TV: She also composed the music for the Syrian Ramadan 2025 hit AL BATAL, directed by Allaith Hajjo.

INTERVIEW

Spain had its Money Heist moment, and South Korea made a global splash with Squid Games… How close is the Arab World to creating its own global streaming hit?

I think we are very close, although I always have to ask which is more important? Watering down our stories as Arabs in order to satisfy the global international palette, or ensuring that our Arab hits have global standards when it comes to production levels in order to ensure that Arab audiences are enjoying Arab works as much as, if not more than, enjoying those from outside the Arab World.

Having recently had the honor of composing and orchestrating the original score for the Syrian series AL BATAL by Allaith Hajjo, which was a hit amongst Arab audiences not only due to its important story but also due to the high level of production it showcased on every level, and knowing that it is subtitled in English, makes me hope that it would be available for the entire world to watch and, who knows, maybe it will become a global streaming hit.

I feel that works like this one, that are honest and which reflect our identity unapologetically, when done with this level of quality, can reach a global audience when streamed on a global network and can become a global streaming hit.