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Samir Mallal - Oneday Studio
London, California, GB
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About
Samir Mallal Co-Founder, CEO & Director | OneDay Studio Location: London, United Kingdom (Canadian, born Halifax, Nova Scotia) About Samir Mallal is a Canadian filmmaker and the Co-Founder and CEO of OneDay Studio — a director-led, global AI entertainment studio whose mission is to tell stories at the speed of culture using the latest generative AI tools. With a career spanning 15+ years across commercials, documentary, virtual reality, and now AI-hybrid cinema, Samir is one of the most credentialed filmmaker-founders in the AI production space. His pre-AI career alone speaks for itself: a Cannes Gold Lion , a Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination , a Canadian Screen Award nomination , and the distinction of having his commercial Arctic Sun named by TIFF as the best commercial in Canadian cinema history . He was named Best Young Director at Cannes Lions 2010 and selected for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase . At OneDay, Samir and co-founder Bouha Kazmi have built a custom AI filmmaking pipeline — blending live performance, cinematography, and AI-rendered environments — that Variety described as "Mission: Impossible for the News" and The New York Times said "rivals Hollywood productions." Signature Awards & Honours AwardWorkNotes Cannes Gold Lion Arctic Sun — Tropicana / BBDO Toronto Gold Clio Commercial work Webby Award D&AD Wood Pencil Arctic Sun Canadian Screen Award nomination Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination Nollywood Babylon Documentary Best Young Director — Cannes Lions 2010 Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase Selected TIFF — Best Commercial in Canadian Cinema History Arctic Sun OneDay Studio — Flagship AI Work "The Decisive Moment" Series — 3-film original AI narrative series Film 3: Midnight Drop (2025) An 8-minute AI short dramatizing real geopolitical events — a B-2 stealth bomber crew en route to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, cross-cut with a woman in Tehran beginning her morning routine. Made using a custom pipeline blending live performance capture with AI-rendered environments. Variety : "Mission: Impossible for the News" The New York Times : "rivals Hollywood productions" Tools: Google Gemini · Luma AI · Midjourney · OpenAI Commercial AI Work: Piguet Galland (Swiss private bank) — AI brand film via Arts & Intelligence / Buzzman Atlassian — AI-hybrid commercial AI Tools & Custom Pipeline OneDay's bespoke AI filmmaking approach: Google Gemini / Veo — world and environment rendering Luma AI — scene generation Midjourney — visual development and style frames OpenAI / Sora — video generation Live performance capture — actors, editors, VFX artists, musicians woven throughout Constantly evolving stack — swapping tools as the technology advances Ethical AI framework: Never references other artists' work in prompts Full copyright ownership transferred to clients Cyber coverage + client indemnification on every project Director-led human oversight on every frame Studio Positioning & Partnerships PartnershipDetail Arts & Intelligence (A&I) OneDay is the first creative studio operating within A&I's fully integrated AI division Grand Bazar (Paris) Strategic partnership expanding OneDay into France ANIMALS (Canada) Commercial representation — Canadian market Cartello Directors Global commercial representation Smuggler Earlier career representation Career Timeline RoleCompanyNotes Co-Founder, CEO & Director OneDay Studio Current — London Documentary Co-Director National Film Board of Canada Career origins Commercials Director Smuggler Global brands Short Film Director BFI Vest — acquired by BFI TV Series Co-Creator CBC / Hulu Black Taj TV Series (in development) Crave / Sphere Media Semi-autobiographical limited series Commercial Brand Portfolio Google · Coca-Cola · GE · Starbucks · Johnnie Walker · Tropicana · Smirnoff · Dell · Total · LG · Rogers · Sobeys · Maple Leaf Foods (Super Bowl) Documentary & Narrative Film TitleFormatNotes Nollywood Babylon Documentary Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination Discordia Documentary National Film Board of Canada Bombay Calling Documentary National Film Board of Canada Vest Short Film Acquired by BFI Black Taj TV Series Co-created — CBC / Hulu VR Work "New Wave" with Within — narrative VR film with interactive voiceover, pushing limits of the medium Speaker on VR storytelling at CES and MIT Featured on BBC News on AI and creativity Keynote speaker at Content London — AI as creative accelerant Press Coverage The New York Times · Variety · The Guardian · BBC News · LBBOnline Studio Philosophy "We started OneDay because we realised AI is the unlock, to tell the stories we've always wanted to tell but couldn't." "Technology does not lead our work. Story does. Every project starts with narrative intent and a clear visual language. AI allows us to move faster and explore further — with the filmmaker's perspective at the center of everything we create." "L.A. production is dead. The new frontier is p