Faegheh Atashin, known professionally as Googoosh, is an Iranian singer and former actress. One of the most popular and prolific entertainers in Iran, her career has spanned over six decades. Googoosh has enjoyed significant popularity since the beginning of her career, ultimately becoming a cultural icon inside Iran and abroad.
Omid Djalili is a British actor, comedian and writer.
Aleksandr Konstantinovich Petrov is a Russian animator and animation director.
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz.
Hazel Thereasa O'Connor is a British singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles "Eighth Day", "D-Days" and "Will You?" She also starred in the 1980 film Breaking Glass.
The Cinema of Iran, also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame and now enjoy a global following. Iranian films are usually written and spoken in the Persian language. Iranian cinema has had many ups and downs.
Ebrahim Hatamikia is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and actor. Hatamikia is known for films depicting the Iran–Iraq War's impact on Iran. His films are considered some of the best ever made in the Iranian war cinema and most notable for their attention to social changes brought about by the war. Also, he is best-known for his explorations of the trauma by the war; both on returning soldiers and those who await them, unable to mourn effectively without knowing the fate of their loved ones.
Mona Zandi is an Iranian film director. She is a director and editor of short films, documentaries and feature films. Her film work belongs to the cinema of post-revolutionary Iran, which focuses on contemporary social issues within Persian culture. Mona Zandi worked with Iranian film director and pioneer Rakhshan Bani-E'temad.
Navid Akhavan is an Iranian-German actor and film director. He is also known as Navid Navid.
Nazanin Boniadi is a British actress and activist. Born in Iran and raised in London, she went to university in the United States, where she landed her first major acting role as Leyla Mir in the medical drama General Hospital (2007–2009) and its spin-off General Hospital: Night Shift (2007). Since then, she is best known for playing Nora in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2011), Fara Sherazi in the Showtime spy thriller series Homeland (2013–2014), Esther in the historical drama film Ben-Hur (2016), Clare Quayle in the Starz sci-fi thriller series Counterpart (2017–2018), and Zahra Kashani in the action thriller film Hotel Mumbai (2018).
William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet is a feature-length documentary film about a ballet by Margo Sappington called "Common People", which was set to the music of William Shatner and Ben Folds from their album Has Been. "Common People" was one of the Has Been tracks, and was a cover of a Pulp song from their 1995 Different Class album.
Trouble the Water is a 2008 documentary film produced and directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. The film portrays a young couple surviving Hurricane Katrina, leading them to face their own troubled past during the storm's aftermath, in a community abandoned long before the hurricane hit. It features music by Massive Attack, Mary Mary, Citizen Cope, John Lee Hooker, The Roots, Dr. John and Blackkoldmadina. Trouble the Water is distributed by Zeitgeist Films and premiered in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on August 22, 2008, followed by a national release.
Pourān Derakh'shandeh is an Iranian film director, producer, screen writer, and researcher.
Britney: For the Record is a 2008 documentary television film about American singer Britney Spears, following her return to the recording industry after her much-publicized personal struggles. The film was shot in Beverly Hills and New York City during the third quarter of 2008; main shooting began on September 5, 2008, two days before Spears's appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards. It was directed by Phil Griffin. MTV, one of the two official distributors of the documentary, posted on their website the first promotional trailer on October 9, 2008.
Aryana Farshad is a writer, director, and film producer born in Tehran, Iran.
The shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, which resulted in her death during the 2009 Iranian election protests, drew worldwide attention. Agha-Soltan, a student of philosophy, was participating in the protests with her music teacher, and was walking back to her car when she was fatally shot in the chest.
Keirda Bahruth is an American filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. She began her career working on Music Videos and Commercials before a move to New York teamed her up with legendary Saturday Night Live director James Signorelli, famous for his commercial parody sketches. As Signorelli's assistant, she began shooting behind-the-scenes footage of life at SNL for the show's 25th Anniversary Special, which gave her complete access to the inner workings of the show. After three full seasons at SNL, Bahruth returned to Los Angeles in 2001 and joined the nascent world of reality television. She has worked as a director and producer on shows for the Discovery Channel, E!, Fox, NBC/Universal, The WB and BET.
Forbidden Voices is a documentary film by director Barbara Miller about the fight for human rights and freedom of speech of three female bloggers: Yoani Sánchez from Cuba, Zeng Jinyan from China and Farnaz Seifi from Iran.
Sonita Alizadeh is an Afghan rapper and activist who has been vocal against forced marriages. Alizadeh first gained attention when she released "Brides for Sale," a video in which she raps about daughters being sold into marriage by their families. With the help of Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, an Iranian documentary filmmaker who over three years documented her story in the film Sonita, Alizadeh filmed the video to escape a marriage her parents were planning for her, even though it is illegal for women to sing solo in Iran, where she was living at the time. After releasing the video on YouTube, Alizadeh was contacted by the Strongheart Group, which offered her a student visa and financial help to come and study in the United States of America, where she then relocated and has resided since. In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.
