The Cairo International Film Festival is an annual internationally accredited film festival held in Cairo Opera House. It was established in 1976 and has taken place every year since its inception, except for 2011 and 2013, when it was cancelled due to budget limitations and political instability. It is the only international competitive feature film festival recognized by the FIAPF in the Arab world and Africa, as well as the oldest in this category.
Jeonju International Film Festival is an Asian film festival based in South Korea. It was launched in 2000 as a non-competitive film festival seeking to introduce independent and experimental films to the general public and focusing on the art of contemporary cinematography.
Vanaja is a 2006 Telugu-language drama film written and directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli on a story that constituted his Master of Fine Arts thesis at Columbia University. The film was made on a shoestring budget using a cast of non-professional first-timers for two and a half months.
McLaren's Negatives is a 2006 short animated documentary directed by French Canadian filmmaker Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre. The film is a study of the Canadian animator Norman McLaren, and his personal view of film making. The short film won several awards, including the 2007 Jutra Award for best animated short film.
Farkhondeh Torabi is an internationally acclaimed Persian animation director.
Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. She was named one of Variety magazine's 10 Directors to Watch in 2009, and in 2010 received a United States Artists (USA) Fellowship. In 2022, she was nominated for the Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series award for her work on the television series Only Murders in the Building. In March 2022, Dabis was named Laureate for Cultural Excellence by the Takreem foundation for her work on authentic Arab representation in Hollywood.
Annemarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker, writer, and producer.
Aadhi Haqeeqat, Aadha Fasana is a 1990 Hindi/English language Documentary Feature film directed by Dilip Ghosh and produced by Ravi Malik in association with the National Film Development Corporation of India.
Pourān Derakh'shandeh is an Iranian film director, producer, screen writer, and researcher.
The 62nd Cannes Film Festival took place from 13 May to 24 May 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert served as jury president for the main competition. Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the drama film The White Ribbon.
Salt of this Sea is a 2008 Palestinian film directed by Annemarie Jacir and was an Official Selection of the Cannes International Film Festival in 2008. It is Palestine's submission to the 81st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film stars Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad as Soraya, an American-born Palestinian woman, who heads to Israel and Palestine on a quest to reclaim her family's home and money that were taken during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. A young Saleh Bakri also stars in the film in his first role in an Arab film.
Amreeka is a 2009 independent film written and directed by first-time director Cherien Dabis. It stars Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Joseph Ziegler, and Miriam Smith.
Ahmed Rashwan is an Egyptian film director, screenplay writer, and a film producer. His filmography includes a list of short, documentaries, and one long-feature film. Since his graduation from the Cairo Film Institute in 1994, he worked on promoting the Independent Cinema wave in Egypt, as an alternative path to overcome the sway of the mass marketed film production.
Children of Invention is an American independent feature film written and directed by Tze Chun. It premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, screened at more than 50 film festivals, and won 17 festival awards including 8 Grand Jury or Best Narrative Feature prizes. The film was released theatrically in eight U.S. cities beginning February 2010, on Video-on-Demand in June 2010, and on DVD in August 2010.
The Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Dallas, Texas. The 2025 edition will be held April 25-May 1, 2025.
The 33rd annual Cairo International Film Festival was held from November 10 to November 20, 2009. Indian director Adoor Gopalakrishnan was the president of the jury.
Nila Madhab Panda is an Indian film producer and director. Panda has directed and produced over 70 films, documentaries, and shorts based on social issues, such as climate change, child labor, education, water issues, sanitation and other developmental issues in India. Many of his films are based on his own experiences. He has won several awards and received critical acclaim for his films which have been described as "entertaining yet socially relevant."
Ritesh Batra is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Batra's Hindi-language debut feature film The Lunchbox premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Rail d’Or. Batra also won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best First Feature Film in 2014. The Lunchbox was the highest-grossing foreign film in North America, Europe and Australia for 2014 grossing over US$25 Million. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language in 2015.
Prasanna Jayakody is a Sri Lankan film director and screenwriter.
It Must Be Heaven is a 2019 internationally co-produced comedy-drama film directed, written and starred by Elia Suleiman. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
