Ayoub Qanir | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
Ayoub Qanir is an American filmmaker and writer, known for his films Artificio Conceal and The World of Which We Dream Doesn't Exist. He is also a graphic novelist. In 2015, he was knighted by the King of Morocco.
Qanir was born in 1983 in Casablanca, Morocco. [1] He grew up in Madrid, Spain where as a kid he would shoot short films with his friends in his parent's backyard using a Handycam. He later moved to the United States where he graduated from the University of Miami with a double major in management and finance. [2] He also studied nanotechnology at Harvard and film direction at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. [3]
Qanir began his career directing and producing music videos and short documentaries. In 2009, he began writing fiction by releasing a series of comic books in collaboration with Juan Doe. [4] Some of Qanir's earlier work includes films such as Human After All and Koyakatsi. [5]
His first film to gain traction was Artificio Conceal, a 2014 film with David Bailie. [6] [1] He presented it at the Festival International de Films de Montréal where he also moderated a discussion on imagination as a means of survival. [1] It played at over 50 film festivals, [4] including being shortlisted at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and won numerous awards including "Best Short Film" at the 2015 Bengaluru International Short Film Festival. [7] In November 2015, Qanir became a Knight of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite awarded by the King of Morocco. [8] [4]
Qanir wrote, directed, and produced the 2017 film The World of Which We Dream Doesn't Exist which was shown at the 22nd International Film Festival of Kerala. [9] It won numerous awards including "Best Production Design" at the Ischia Film Festival and "Best Experimental Film" at the American Filmatic Arts Awards. [10] The following year he released the feature film Sea of Light which was filmed in the Westfjords in Iceland. [4] In 2020, Qanir released Darkness of Otherwhere, a film he shot in Japan. It won the "Best Experimental Film Award" at the 2020 Arthouse Film Festival. [11]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Human After All | Yes | No | No | [9] |
| Moonwalker | Yes | No | No | ||
| Room 237 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2014 | Koyakatsi | Yes | Yes | No | [2] |
| Artificio Conceal | Yes | Yes | Yes | [12] | |
| 2017 | The World of Which We Dream Doesn't Exist | Yes | Yes | Yes | [9] |
| 2018 | Sea of Light | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2020 | Darkness of Otherwhere | Yes | Yes | Yes | [13] |
| 2024 | Daria | Yes | Yes | No | [14] |
| 2025 | Where God Lives | Yes | Yes | Yes |