Born in Saudi Arabia in 1985 and currently based in Cairo, Marwa Zein is a Sudanese filmmaker who graduated with honors from Cairo’s Higher Institute of Cinema in 2009.

Her multi-award-winning 2009 short film A Game screened across more than 21 national and international festivals, receiving four awards and a selection in the Cannes Short Film Corner (2010). Between 2009 and 2015, Zein participated in prestigious industry programs including the Berlinale Talents, Durban Talents, the Haile Gerima Filmmaking Workshop, and the Silverdocs AFI Workshop. In 2015, she completed a film course led by Professor Arne Bro at the National Film School of Denmark.

Her short film script Layl, developed through New York-based Cinephilia’s Screenwriting Lab, earned an Honorable Mention. In 2011, she relocated to South Sudan to develop her debut feature film script, Nina & Rebecca, while also working as a correspondent and field director for BBC Arabic and Egyptian National Television. She was later commissioned by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Sudan to direct a documentary on Khartoum’s women's football team (2015–2016).