From Hollywood’s earliest era up to today, brothers have produced an outsized impact on the movie industry: Jack Warner and his siblings, Joel and Ethan Coen, the Duffer brothers, Russo brothers, Farrelly brothers, Duplass brothers, and the Ways (Chapman and Maclain), among others.

Hamza and Badie Ali are emerging as the newest brother tandem to make their mark on the business, founding Watermelon Pictures in 2024. Already, they have an Oscar nomination to their name, for The Voice of Hind Rajab, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania. The recent Best International Feature nominee, based on the true story of a young Palestinian girl killed in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces, fits precisely within Watermelon Pictures’ bold mission statement: “To shift culture on a large scale by bringing Palestinian cinema, and other untold stories, to broad audiences.”

As Palestinian Americans, the brothers grew up seeing people of similar backgrounds depicted by Hollywood in the most negative terms. But coming from a family steeped in the film production and distribution business — their father Malik Ali and uncle Waleed Ali founded MPI Media Group in Chicago in 1976 — they were in a unique position to help counteract those damaging media stereotypes.

“Us being Muslim, Arab, we knew there’s a lack of content representing [our community],” Badie observes. “We were looking to create a label that focuses on that sort of content. And we were very early on in talks [before 2023]. Fast-forward to October 7th and what’s been happening since then, the genocide, we started reaching out to different filmmakers and there have been projects coming to us specifically related to the conflict. And we quickly realized that there was no outlet taking any of these films.”

Along with The Voice of Hind Rajab, the brothers have supported All That’s Left of You, the Oscar-shortlisted 2025 drama set in the occupied West Bank; From Ground Zero, “a collection of revealing stories from 22 Palestinian filmmakers living through war,” which became Palestine’s official selection for the 2025 Academy Awards, and American Doctor, which premiered at Sundance in January, director Poh Si Teng’s documentary about three American physicians who have volunteered to treat children terribly injured in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The company logo features seeds of the watermelon, an image rich in symbolism. “The name Watermelon Pictures as a label in itself, it has a lot of meaning and resonance underneath it,” Badie says. “To some people, it’s just a fruit, very disarming… So, if you’re not part of the [Palestinian liberation] movement or understand what it is, it’s still acceptable. And it’s kind of what we’re trying to do, is to appeal to a greater audience. But people who are involved in the movement know that it’s a form of resistance.”

Watermelon Pictures is expanding its focus well beyond films about Palestine. In 2025, it released Sudan, Remember Us, a documentary about young people who use poetry to confront war crimes in their country, and it acquired U.S. distribution rights to the lyrical animated film The Glassworker, directed by Pakistani filmmaker Usman Riaz.

We want to broaden our scope, and we are broadening our scope. We want to be inclusive of all other causes and also just provide humanizing entertainment across the board.

Hamza Ali

“We want to broaden our scope, and we are broadening our scope. We want to be inclusive of all other causes and also just provide humanizing entertainment across the board,” Hamza explains. “So, we picked up The Six Billion Dollar Man, Eugene Jarecki’s documentary about Julian Assange. We have some Black Lives Matter films and we’re also releasing genre films. We have a film called Mārama, which premiered at TIFF. It’s an indigenous horror film… We’re passionate about all underrepresented, marginalized communities.”

Watermelon Pictures is a presence in Cannes and at the Venice Film Festival, where The Voice of Hind Rajab premiered last year to a record-breaking 23-minute standing ovation.

“We want to be very active at the festivals, whether it be premiering our own productions or as an active buyer,” Hamza says. “Definitely, we see the festivals as very crucial to uncovering some of these gems and also as a way to launch your film, set it on the right trajectory, make sure that it’s on a path where it’ll be received in the industry.”

Watermelon Pictures deliberately takes on projects that may be shunned by major streamers for their political content.

“One important point that we pride ourselves upon, is really just being fearless,” Hamza says. “When we started this, we genuinely were worried, what is this going to do to our business? But also, it’s personal for us. And so we said, ‘You know what? We have nothing to lose — even though we do — but it’s a duty.’ Coming from that point to where we are now, really all of that fear that we may have had has been shed and we’re definitely at this point, ‘bring it on.’”

Says Hamza’s older brother Badie, “We want to be courageous as a disruptor. I think what we’re realizing is there’s a lot of people who share those sentiments. It’s just that no one’s had the courage to go out and make a space for this content because some of the gatekeepers think it doesn’t benefit them. We really, to be honest, feel like we are a better representation of what people want. And the fact that we’re the only ones doing it, it benefits us.”