Cherien Dabis obtained her M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. Her short film, Make a Wish, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand where it won the Press Prize and Jury’s Special Mention. Dabis worked for three seasons as a writer and co-producer on Showtime’s The L Word before going on to make her feature writing and directorial debut with Amreeka. The film world-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, opened New York’s New Director’s/New Films at the MoMA and won the prestigious FIPRESCI award at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, three Film Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Picture and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. The same year, Dabis was also named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch.” Amreeka was released theatrically to worldwide critical acclaim and was chosen as one of only five American films to take part in the Sundance Institute’s inaugural Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative, an international cinematic cultural exchange and diplomacy program. Dabis returned to Sundance with her second feature film May in the Summer, which opened the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition section. With the screenplay, she won a Time Warner Storytelling Grant, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art Grant (2010, 2009) and the prestigious Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. A Guggenheim Fellow, USA Rockefeller Fellow, winner of the Humanitas Prize and the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award, Dabis is an alumna of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab, Film Independent Directing Lab and Tribeca All Access, where she was honored with the first ever L’Oreal Paris Woman of Worth Vision Award. She currently resides in New York City.

Dabis worked for three seasons as a writer and co-producer on Showtime’s groundbreaking, original hit television series The L Word before going on to make her feature writing and directorial debut with Amreeka. Amreeka (2009) world-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (2009), opened New York’s New Directors/New Films at the MoMA (2009) and won the prestigious FIPRESCI award in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes (2009). It was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award (2009), 3 Independent Spirit Awards (2010), including Best Picture and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review (2009). The same year, Dabis was also named one of Varietys “Ten Directors to Watch.” Amreeka was released theatrically to worldwide critical acclaim and was recently chosen as one of only five American films to take part in the Sundance Institute?s inaugural Film Forward: Advancing Cultural Dialogue initiative, an international cinematic cultural exchange and diplomacy program.

A USA Rockefeller Fellow (2010) and winner of the Humanitas Prize (2009) as well as the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award (2009), Dabis is an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriter?s Lab (2010, 2005), Film Independent Directors Lab (2005) and Tribeca All Access (2007), where she was honored with the first ever L’Oreal Paris Woman of Worth Vision Award. In support of her work, she has received generous grants from National Geographic, the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Tribeca Film Institute and the Sundance Institute.

This summer, Dabis is slated to go into production on her second feature film May In The Summer, for which she won the prestigious Sundance / NHK International Filmmaker Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. She’s also writing and attached to direct a dramatic comedy for Fox Searchlight and currently teaches in the graduate film program at Columbia University.