Mohamed el Zayat is an Egyptian film director and a member of the Egyptian Director’s syndicate. After working as a creative in advertising agencies (fortune Promoseven/Mccann world group and BBDO), Mohamed went on to do his masters in film in New York Film Academy in 2007 and received an MFA in film directing in 2009. During his studies, Mohamed directed two short films “Bolbol and the customers (2008)” and “East West? East West.”
From 2010-2011, Zayat has worked in different positions as a crew member in New York from electric to grip to sound to art department and returned to Cairo in January 2011 (complete coincidence) to assume the role of creative director in (Fortune Promoseven/Mccann worldgroup Cairo). He went on to direct his commercials until 2013 when he got his break with Mini-Valentines massacre (https://vimeo.com/59662339), which won him best direction and cinematography in the Dubai Lynx. Mohamed then resigned from FP7 and went on to direct commercials as a freelance director. Mohamed won numerous awards in Dubai Lynx, Mena crystals, African crystals from Grand Prix to silver and was selected by the B&W report as one of the top ten film directors (in commercials) in the Middle East.
Zayat’s commercials have been known to be quite cinematic with a specific dark humor and his plan was always to make films. He never wanted to make 20 films, but instead is interested to make 7 good ones. Even though he is at the peak of his career as an advertising director, Zayat believes it is time to move on to film. He has been working on a feature script for almost 3 years now with co-writer Omar Khaled.