Thirty-five years ago, I witnessed the kidnapping of a man I knew. 
He has disappeared since. Ten years ago, I caught a glimpse of his face while walking in the street, but I was not sure it was him. Parts of his face were torn off, but his features had remained unchanged since the incident, yet something was different as if he was not the same man.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: 71 Locarno Festival, Special Mention First Feature, 2018 (Switzerland) / Carthage Film Festival, Bronze Tanit for the Best Long Documentary, 2018 (Tunisia) / 40th Cairo International Film Festival, Fathy Farag Prize for Best Artistic Contribution, 2018 (Egypt)

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Ghassan Halwani lives and works in Beirut. After the short-animated film Jibraltar (2005), he was mainly involved in collaborations with Lebanese and Arab filmmakers, playwrights, contemporary artists, publishers, and musicians.  Erased, _Ascent of the Invisible (2018) is his first feature film.
He is currently contributing to the creation of a national archive dedicated to enforced disappearances in Lebanon. 

CONTACT
ghassanhalwani@yahoo.fr     |     http://mecfilm.com/index.php?id=3565

A child documents the love life of her grandad – a man who has a reputation for being a passionate romantic. She tells the story of how her grandad came across a picture of her granny for the first time, and decided at that moment that she must be the love of his life. He marries her, and they start a family together, but grandad’s boundless romance never dies. It will take him in unforeseen directions.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: BAFTA Film Award, Best British Short Animation, 2020 (UK) / Rhode Island International Film Festival, First Prize Best Animation Short, 2020 (USA).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Maryam Mohajer is an award-winning animator-director who was born in Tehran, Iran just before living through a revolution, war, and immigration. With a background in painting, she discovered animation after moving to the UK where she got her MA in animation. Her short films have been screened at many festivals across the UK. She lives and works as an animator, writer, and director in London.

CONTACT
mmplondon@yahoo.co.uk 

An Iranian woman tries to find a place to park her car in Tehran to be on time for a business appointment. Men in the streets disturb her concentration while she is driving, but she finds a solution to confront them.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: 12th edition of the Festival Internacional De Cine Invisible Film, Special Mention, 2022 (Spain) / 5th Tripoli Film Festival, Special Mention, 2018 (Lebanon).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Ghasideh Golmakani was born in Tehran (Iran), into a family of journalists and artists. She studied in Paris in History of Art and Cultural Studies at the Sorbonne. She directs films in which she tries to show the contrasts and contradictions of Iranian society.

Grandmother loses her five senses one after the other until she transforms into a wooden chair. 

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: Festival de Cine de Oriente, Best Animation, 2021 (Colombia) / Carthage Film Festival, Silver Tanit Award, 2021 (Tunisia) / IFVA Awards – Hong Kong Arts Center, Animation Silver Award, 2021 (China).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Nicolas Fattouh (born 1994 in Monsef, Lebanon) is a visual artist and director. He participated in many local and international exhibitions. He graduated from Academie Libanaise Des Beaux Arts in animation. In 2018, his debut “How grandmother became a chair“ received production grant The Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. In 2019, he opened the Fattouh Art Gallery in Monsef.

CONTACT
fabian@fabianfred.com | https://fabianfred.com

Filmed during and after the ten-month drama therapy/theatre project set up in 2012 in Baabda prison by drama therapist and director Zeina Daccache. This gripping and tragicomic documentary features the women inmates who, through their unprecedented theatre initiative entitled “Scheherazade in Baabda”, challenge societies that oppress women. In the course of their artistic journey, these “murderers of husbands, adulterers and drug felons” reveal stories of domestic violence, traumatic childhood, a failed marriage, forlorn romance, and deprivation of motherhood that become the narratives of this self-revelatory film, with flamenco dance to boot.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: URTI Grand Prix-Arman, Trophy for Author’s Documentary, 2014 (France) / 11th edition of the Lebanese Film Festival, Best Documentary Prize, 2014 (Lebanon) / Malmo Arab Film Festival, Al Araby TV Network Award, 2014 (Sweden).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Zeina Daccache, is a Lebanese actress, director and drama therapist (studied at USJ Beirut, Ecole Philippe Gaulier- London and KSU in USA). She works as an actor, is a drama therapist working in different social sectors, and has directed the wining award film 12 Angry Lebanese in addition to several others. Zeina is the founder and director of Catharsis-Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy.

CONTACT
zeina@catharsislcdt.org | https://linktr.ee/zeinadaccachelebanon

Every day teenagers who have fled their war-torn countries try to cross Europe’s borders in search of protection and a better life. They travel through a shadow world we never see; a world of minefields, bears, fast-flowing rivers, smugglers, and border guards. Risking their lives, the teenagers undertake a treacherous journey that often takes months or even years. Along the way, they grow up fast. Shadow Game (89 min, was shot over three years, partly by the main characters themselves on their phones) is a journey through the dark side of Europe with teenage refugees as our guides.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: UNHCR Refugee FilmFestival WILL2LIVE 2021 (Japan) / Festival Cinéma & Droits Humains, 2021 (France) / Human Rights Film Festival Zurich, 2021 (Switzerland) / 
WatchDocs Human Human Rights Film Festival Berlin, 2021 (Germany).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Els van Driel (Alkmaar, 1976) is an independent cross media journalist and director. She studied art history and social-cultural theology at the University of Amsterdam. She initiated the award winning youth documentary series ‘Just Kids’ where she worked at IKON television.
Eefje Blankevoort (1978) studied History at the University of Amsterdam. She regularly spent time in Iran where she studied. She has developed into an all-rounder in journalism. Eefje is the co-founder and director of documentary production agency Prospektor.

CONTACT
olivier@javafilms.tv | www.javafilms.tv

Based on real events, in Austria 2015, and in Ireland 2019: A Group of refugees try to reach a safe country in search of a better life. They pay a smuggler to convey them across the borders in a fridge truck. However, the freezing temperature of the truck turns their hopes for a better future into a fierce struggle for survival.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: 20th Lebu International Film Festival, Best animated short film 2020 (Chile) / 12th Wimbledon International Short Film Festival, Winner, Audience Award, 2020 (UK) / 3rd Panama Animation Festival (PAF), 2020 (Panama).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Farzaneh Omidvarnia was born in Iran, Graduated from University of Tehran, faculty of Fine Arts. Following her graduation, she began to focus on creation of fabric sculptures and writing short stories. Her artworks soon appeared in several art exhibitions in Europe and Iran, and she published her first collection of short stories in 2016.  In 2017, she directed and produced her first animated film “To Be“ (6 minutes, drama). The movie was acclaimed internationally and won prizes in different festivals. Her second film “Song Sparrow“ has been qualified for Oscars 2021. She is now based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

One year after the Beirut Port explosion, director Sarah Kaskas narrates her trauma through a collage of her fragmented memory. Together with the voices of survivors, they attempt to process their collective grief.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: Malmö Arab Film Festival, 2022 (Sweden) / ALFILM Arab Film Festival Berlin, 2022 (Germany) / Liberation DocFest Bangladesh, 2022 (Bangladesh) 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Sarah Kaskas is a Lebanese filmmaker, music composer, and film educator. In 2016, Sarah co-founded Karaaj Films, an independent production company that focuses on documentaries and fiction films dealing with identity and marginalized communities in Lebanon. Under Karaaj Films, Sarah has written and directed the short and feature documentaries that have received several awards. Sarah now resides in Beirut, developing her first feature fiction.

ONTACT
liliane.rahal@gmail.com     |     Karaaj.films@gmail.com 
http://sarahkaskas.com/about/http-sarahkaskas-com-documentary-film/struck-2021

In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where journalist and filmmaker Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. Assia uncovers tens of thousands of pages of FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counter-terrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11, code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” With unprecedented access, the film weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: Blackstar Film Festival, Audience Award, Best Documentary, 2018 (USA) / Milwaukee Film Festival, Documentary Jury Award - Special Mention, 2018 (USA) / Camden International Film Festival, Audience Award, 2018 (USA).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Assia Boundaoui is an Algerian-American journalist and filmmaker based in Chicago. She has reported for BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, VICE, and CNN and was the recipient of a first place, Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, for her reporting in Yemen. She directed a short film on hijabi hair salons for the HBO LENNY docu-series. The Feeling of Being Watched is her feature directorial debut.

CONTACT
jessica@multitudefilms.com

A Year has passed since the Crime at the Beirut Port: Will the Criminals Evade Again?
The results of the investigation were not announced, and not a single official was prosecuted. The families of the victims are stuck in the memory of the fateful day. The Lebanese war leaders had previously escaped from their crimes through a general amnesty law they passed in 1990, will the perpetrators of the port explosion escape in the same way?

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
A Lebanese journalist and documentary producer/director with almost 30 years of experience in media. She has covered hot zones in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and many more. Diana has shot more than 50 hours of documentaries, tackling socio-political issues in the MENA/Arab region and globally. She covers topics such as gender issues, minorities, and human-interest stories.

CONTACT
diana.moukalled@daraj.com     |     www.daraj.com

An Egyptian artist named Khaled decides to investigate a murder case of a child who is selling sweet potato in Tahrir Square. He receives visions and nightmares about the child during his journey of investigation until he reaches a point where it is a dead end, and the case takes him to an outcome that is out of his exceptions.

AWARDS
Among many others, some prestigious: Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, Outstanding Achievement Award, 2018 (India) / Miami Short Film Festival, Best Emerging Media Story Storytelling, 2017 (USA) / Zawya Film Festival, Best Animation Film, 2018 (Egypt).

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in the animation department. His first short film titled “Night“ was screened in 9 festivals & won two awards & three honor certificates. His latest animation short film “Tarot“, won 10 awards & was chosen to be part of the final international contest in Hollywood, California. His new film “The Unknown Sweet Potato Seller“ was screened at Dubai film festival as a world premiere in December 2016.

CONTACT
roshdyartworld@gmail.com