Hassan Khaled was the leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim community. As a grand mufti, he presided over Islamic courts in Lebanon for 23 years, and served as Head of the Islamic Coalition, a body which included past and present prime ministers, Sunni parliamentary figures, and Sunni members of Lebanon's government. He was considered a moderate, and upon his assassination was named as the "father of moderation," as he worked throughout his career to bring unity to the warring factions of the Lebanese Civil War. Khaled's assassination in 1989 was widely believed to be the work of Syria.
Nadine Labaki is a Lebanese and Canadian actress, director, and activist. Labaki first came into the spotlight as an actress in the early 2000s. Her filmmaking career began in 2007 after the release of her debut film, Caramel, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She is known for demonstrating everyday aspects of Lebanese life and covering a range of political issues such as war, poverty, and feminism. She is the first female Arab director to be nominated for an Oscar in the category for Best Foreign Language Film for third directorial effort, Capernaum (2018).
Ezz El-Dine Ahmed Mourad Zulficar was an Egyptian film director, screenwriter, actor and producer known for his distinctive style, which blends romance and action. Zulficar is widely regarded one of the most influential filmmakers in Egyptian Cinema's golden age.
Evan Mather is an American landscape architect, urban designer, and filmmaker. He is primarily known for his work in the genre of web film specifically the reconfiguration of personal histories and exploration of memory landscapes.
The most successful web-stream films, of course, are made with the format in mind. American film-maker Evan Mather's work, such as Icarus of Pittsburgh (2002), is a good example: densely packed with visual and aural information, his films seem made to be watched intently, in isolation and cocooned by headphones.
The cinema of Lebanon, according to film critic and historian Roy Armes, is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region, beside Egypt's, that could amount to a national cinema. Cinema in Lebanon has been in existence since the 1920s, and the country has produced more than 500 films.
Maroun Bagdadi was a Lebanese film director known for his vivid portrayal of Lebanon's civil war. Bagdadi was internationally the best-known Lebanese filmmaker of his generation. He worked with American producer/director Francis Coppola and made several films in French that became hits in France.
Selim Mouzannar is a French-Lebanese jeweler and civic activist. He is the founder and CEO of Selim Mouzannar, his eponymous jewellery house and artisanal manufacturing corporation based in Beirut, Lebanon.
Alexis Dos Santos is an Argentine film director and producer, screenwriter and editor. He has also shot a number of short and directed music videos. He is considered part of the New Queer Cinema movement.
Isidore Bethel is a French-American filmmaker whom Filmmaker named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2020. The films he edits, directs, and produces use filmmaking to make sense of overwhelming experiences and touch on recurrent themes of displacement, sexuality, aging, trauma, grief, therapy, and art-making. His first feature film as director, Liam, premiered at the Boston LGBT Film Festival in 2018 and received the Jury Prize in the Documentary section of the Paris LGBTQ+ Film Festival. His second film, Acts of Love, which French actor Francis Leplay co-directed, premiered at Hot Docs and received the Tacoma Film Festival's Best Feature Award in 2021.
Farah ALHashim is a Kuwaiti-Lebanese filmmaker and journalist based in Paris. ALHashim has been making films since 2011 including 7 Hours, which won several awards at film festivals in 2013 and Breakfast in Beirut in 2015, which was honored at multiple festivals.
Capernaum is a 2018 Lebanese drama film directed by Nadine Labaki and produced by Khaled Mouzanar. The screenplay was written by Labaki, Jihad Hojaily and Michelle Keserwany from a story by Labaki, Hojaily, Keserwany, Georges Khabbaz and Khaled Mouzanar. The film stars Syrian refugee child actor Zain Al Rafeea as Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old living in the slums of Beirut. Capernaum is told in flashback format, focusing on Zain's life, including his encounter with an Ethiopian immigrant Rahil and her infant son Yonas, and leading up to his attempt to sue his parents for child neglect.
Manara is the second short film directed by Lebanese filmmaker Zayn Alexander. It premiered in 2019 during the 76th Venice International Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori section. The film was awarded the top prize at the 5th annual Laguna Sud - Il Cinema fuori dal Palazzo by a jury that included director Paola Randi, director of photography Valerio Azzali, and writer Franceso Targhetta. It went on to win the "Ahmed Khedr Award for Excellence in Arab Filmmaking" at the 2020 ÉCU The European Independent Film Festival and "Best Narrative Short Film" at the 2020 Alexandria Short Film Festival in Egypt.
Nadim Tabet, is a Lebanese filmmaker. He is best known as the director of critically acclaimed film One of These Days.
Mazen Marrouf is a Palestinian–Icelandic writer, translator, journalist and poet, born in 1978. He has more than five publications, and translated many novels from Icelandic into Arabic including the novels of several Icelandic writers. In 2019, his short story "Jokes for the gunmen" was long-listed the Man Booker International Prize. Some of his poetry works and novels have been translated into many languages including English, French, Italian, and Spanish.
Martyr is the second feature film by Lebanese writer and director Mazen Khaled. The film was selected for screening at the 74th Venice International Film Festival in the Biennale College - Cinema section, where it was nominated for the Queer Lion award, and at the 2018 SXSW in the Global section. Martyr was produced by Diala Kachmar of Artrip Production and is distributed in North America by Breaking Glass Pictures and in the UK by Peccadillo Pictures. Martyr was described by Indiewire as "One of the most under-appreciated films of 2018". It features a large ensemble cast led by Carol Abboud, Hamza Mekdad, and Moustafa Fahs.
Tim Leyendekker is a Dutch film director and writer. He is best known for his debut feature film, Feast, and the short films, The Healers and BLINDER.
Launchpad is an anthology series of American independent short films produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The films are created by various filmmakers from diverse and underrepresented racial, social, and cultural backgrounds.
Sandra Melhem is a Lebanese entrepreneur and LGBT rights activist. She is the owner of Projekt / Ego Beirut club, a popular LGBT-friendly venue. Melhem founded Queer Relief Fund, a humanitarian charity, in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut explosion. She received a special mention award for her humanitarian engagement at the International Prize for LGBT rights ceremony held in 2021 in Paris.
Warsha is a 2022 French-Lebanese short film directed by Dania Bdeir. The fifteen-minute short stars multidisciplinary performer Khansa, who plays a migrant worker and crane operator in Beirut. After its premiere at Sundance Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Short Film, the film has been presented in numerous international film festivals, including the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival and the Seminci Valladolid Film Festival, where it won the Rainbow for Best Film. The short advanced to the shortlist for the 95th Academy Awards under the category of Best Live Action Short Film, but did not qualify to the final five. The short also competed in the 48th César Awards.
