Butheina Kazim is the Co-founder of Cinema Akil – the first arthouse cinema in Dubai and the Gulf region. She was a Fulbright scholar of Media, Culture and Communication at NYU and has worked as a project manager in television and radio stations in the UAE at media conglomerates Arab Media Group and Dubai Media Incorporated. Kazim has been involved in programming cinema pop-ups, including Abu Dhabi Film Festival at The Pavilion and a Focus on the UAE programme at the Short Film Week (Kurzfilmwoche) in Regensburg, Germany. She is the producer of short documentary ‘Letters to Palestine’; winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (2010). Kazim was on the jury for the iEmmys Asia & Africa Competition, the International Competition at the Regensburg Kurzfilmwoch (Short Film Week), Imagine Science Film Festival AD, A Shaded View on Fashion Films (ASVOFF) in Paris at the Centre Pompidou and is a member of the UAE Academy Award Committee.