Mehdi Benaïssa is a film producer and programmer with a rich international background. A graduate of La FEMIS in Paris (Production & Promotion, Class 9), he began his career in the United States with Fox Searchlight Studio before joining Arte France in Paris.
In 2011, he founded Akalim Production in Algiers and produced several notable cultural and cinematic projects, including the landmark documentary Algeria from Above directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Yazid Tizi, as well as Méditerranée, and the major 50th anniversary of Algeria’s independence exhibition, which drew over 80,000 visitors.
From 2016 to 2017, he served as director of the Algerian TV channel KBC. He currently works as a media and content advisor to the Algerian Ministries of Culture and Ministry of Communication, contributing to the development of national audio-visual policies.
In 2024, Mehdi Benaïssa was appointed as the Commissioner of the Algiers International Film Festival formerly the Algiers International Cinema Festival (FICA), There, he unfolds a bold and cinephile vision: to transform the festival into an open agora for Southern narratives — a space of dialogue between memory, identity, and creation, attentive to the upheavals of the contemporary world.