AliAli
Director, Good People
Head Judge – Direction
Ali Ali is a highly acclaimed commercials director from Cairo, Egypt and the co-founder of Good People Films. He was recently named by The Gunn Report as one of the ten most awarded directors in the world.
He studied Computer Engineering at the American University in Cairo, but preferring storyboards to motherboards, Ali quickly abandoned a programming career to study Art Direction at the Miami Ad School. From his humble beginnings as a junior art director with D’Arcy Bucharest, Ali moved on to build an award winning career as both art director and creative director for the likes of Leagas Delaney, JWT, Leo Burnett, and topping it off as ECD of DDB Berlin.
His directorial debut, “Never Say No to Panda” won him a Gold Lions in Cannes, and with over 90-million youtube views, has been named by the Guardian as “one of the most watched viral campaigns of all time.” Eight years later, Ali has directed more than sixty commercials for brands such as Diesel, Google, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Amazon. Amongst many other awards, Ali was awarded the D&AD coveted yellow pencil for Best Direction in 2015.
Born in Cairo, but raised all over the world, his work it attentive to local realities, combined with global storytelling and a quirky sense of humor. He is currently represented by Sonny/MJZ in the UK, Markenfilm in Germany and Little Minx in the USA.
Ali lives in Athens, with his wife Salma, and baby girl Sina.