Ben Ross

Ben Ross wears a bunch of hats—he’s Chief Content Officer at Image Nation Abu Dhabi and also running the show as COO over at twofour54 Abu Dhabi. The guy’s basically everywhere. Under his watch, Image Nation nabbed an Oscar in 2019 for Free Solo (yeah, the one with the crazy cliff climbing) and, as of now, they’re the only Middle Eastern studio with a legit lineup of local projects on Netflix. Ben’s the guy behind Justice, the first Emirati TV show to hit Netflix, and Scales, which killed it at the Venice Film Festival and took home the Verona Film Club Award. At twofour54, Ben’s been shaking things up too. He kicked off Abu Dhabi Gaming, pushing the city into the whole gaming and esports world, and launched Yas Creative Hub, which is supposed to blow up the creative sector in Abu Dhabi—like, triple it. Oh, and when COVID hit and everything went sideways, Ben managed to keep productions rolling when almost everyone else was stuck in lockdown. He’s also nailed some big deals—think collaborations with MBC Studios and Majid Al Futtaim (their movie Bloodline dropped in 2020), and he played a key role in getting the world’s first Arabic soap opera, Inheritance, off the ground. Before all this, Ben was hustling in Hollywood with Oscar-winner Scott Rudin, worked at Brillstein-Grey with big names like Brad Pitt and Courteney Cox, and later teamed up with Martin Brest. He’s even written, directed, and produced his own stuff, like The Young Kieslowski, which snagged the Audience Award at the LA Film Festival back in 2014.