Will Jones
Photo courtesy of Shadi AbuSharar
When Shadi AbuSharar entered the film and television industry in 1994, satellite broadcasting in the Middle East was still in its early stages. More than three decades later, his career has moved through nearly every corner of the production world, from broadcast newsrooms to feature film sets to one of the largest international events ever staged in the region. Today, as founder of Urban Films, he is preparing to bring that experience into the United States, framing the move not as a fresh start but as the next stage of a career built one project at a time.
AbuSharar’s path began in an era when regional broadcasting was expanding quickly and demand for skilled production talent was high. He joined MBC Group, then emerging as the leading television and media network in the Middle East, at a formative point in his career. Working inside one of the region’s most influential broadcasters gave him a grounding in the technical and editorial discipline that would define his later work as a cinematographer and director of photography.
A Foundation in Broadcast Production
The years AbuSharar spent in broadcast production were less about a single credit and more about accumulating range. Television requires a different kind of precision than film, tighter turnarounds, more variables, less room for error, and that environment shaped how he later approached larger and more complex productions. That period built an ability to move fluidly between formats, a skill that would prove useful as his career expanded into commercials, feature films, and eventually large-scale event production.
That versatility became especially relevant when AbuSharar was brought on as Video Manager and Editing lead for Expo 2020 Dubai, one of the most ambitious international events ever hosted in the region. Coordinating the Launch of Expo TV Channel, video content and editing workflows for an event of that scale meant managing enormous volumes of footage, tight deadlines, and a level of international visibility that few productions in the region had faced before. It was a markedly different challenge from broadcast television, one that called for the same discipline he had built over the previous two decades.
Technical Work and Industry Recognition
Alongside his broadcast and event work, AbuSharar built a parallel reputation as a cinematographer known for technical precision. His involvement in the Dubai launch of a high-speed camera system placed him at the intersection of production and emerging technology, work that was later covered by BroadcastPro, one of the region’s leading trade publications focused on media production and technology. Being featured in a publication read closely by production professionals and technical decision-makers is a different kind of recognition than general media coverage, one that speaks specifically to craft and technical credibility rather than visibility alone.
That technical reputation is reflected in a client roster that includes Ferrari, Oppo, Huawei, Hyundai, Adidas, Toyota, and Fitness First, alongside his Expo 2020 Dubai work. His work has also been recognized through a Dubai Lynx award entry, a Studio Daily Prime Awards nomination for Best Colorist, and status as an ArtGrid Original Filmmaker, the stock-footage platform’s designation for a curated group of contributing cinematographers.
That credibility has been echoed by senior figures in the industry. Recommendation letters from contacts such as Ali Suleiman, along with others who have worked directly with AbuSharar, describe a production professional whose reputation was built through consistency rather than a single breakout project. His work has also touched Promax Award-winning productions (Promax has since rebranded as the Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences), further reinforcing a career pattern defined less by individual milestones and more by sustained, recognized contribution across multiple projects and formats.
A Career Already Connected to the United States
AbuSharar’s move into the U.S. market is not without precedent in his own career. He has worked with HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles, one of the most prominent short-film festivals in the United States and a launch point for filmmakers seeking wider industry visibility, and with Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), a U.S. government-funded international media organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area. That work put him inside American media and festival circuits well before Urban Films began planning a formal U.S. expansion, giving the current move a track record to stand on rather than a cold start.
From Individual Craft to Company Builder
Somewhere along the way, AbuSharar’s individual career expanded into something larger. Urban Films, the production company he founded, grew into a full-service operation covering feature films, television commercials, equipment rental, and social media content, a breadth that reflects the range he built over thirty years as an individual practitioner. The company has worked with government entities, multinational organizations, and major regional and international brands, clients whose production needs demand both creative range and operational reliability.
It is this combination, three decades of hands-on technical experience paired with the operational track record of running a full-service company, that distinguishes AbuSharar’s career from a more conventional founder narrative. He did not start a company and build a reputation around it. He built a reputation first, over many years and many formats, and the company followed as a natural extension of that experience.
That distinction matters more than it might first appear. Many production companies in the region are built around a business plan first and a body of work second. Urban Films took the opposite route. By the time the company took shape as a full-service operation, AbuSharar already had decades of broadcast, film, and large-scale event experience behind him, along with the industry relationships that come with it. The company’s client roster, spanning government entities, multinational organizations, and major regional and international brands, reflects trust that was earned individually long before it was extended to the business as a whole.
As Urban Films looks toward the United States, AbuSharar has been clear that he sees the expansion as a continuation rather than a reinvention. The work in broadcast, the Expo 2020 Dubai role, the technical recognition through BroadcastPro, his existing ties to HollyShorts and MBN, and the industry relationships built along the way all form the foundation for what comes next. For a career that began in 1994, the next chapter is simply the latest step in a long and deliberate progression.