Meet the Fellows

Introducing the 2022 class of Global Media Makers Fellows

View previous Global Media Makers Fellows:
2016 | 2017 | 2018

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued our curation and support of the most talented filmmakers in the regions where we operate. GMM selected 12 Fellows from six countries to participate virtually in a Screenplay Development Residency in 2020. Then in 2021, another 28 filmmakers were selected from eight countries to participate in a two-week virtual program in anticipation of their LA Residency.

In spring 2022, and for the first time in two years, following continual postponement due to the pandemic, we welcomed our Fellows from the GMM Screenplay Development Residency to Los Angeles, along with an additional 16 Fellows from the group selected in 2021, for a total of 26 filmmakers from nine countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia and the UAE. In total, 33 filmmakers and 21 projects were supported during the fifth iteration of Global Media Makers.

For the sixth iteration of Global Media Makers in the fall of 2022, GMM welcomed an additional 24 Fellows (with 16 total projects) to Los Angeles, representing eight countries: Bangladesh, India, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and UAE.

Whether virtual or in person, the GMM Fellows participated in intensive filmmaking tracks, which focused on screenwriting, directing, creative producing and documentary filmmaking, where they developed their current project through tailored mentorship with U.S. film industry professionals. In Los Angeles, the Fellows also had the opportunity to attend master classes, industry sessions, screenings, field trips, cultural engagement activities and explore the latest in immersive VR technology.

GMM is supported through a partnership between Film Independent and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Jump to: 2021/22 Fellows | 2022 Fellows

Screenplay Development Residency 2020/22

* denotes a virtual participant

Rashid Abdelhamid* – Tunisia

Project Title: A Respectable Family
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In a heightened world where morality and respectability rule over society, newlyweds Achraf and Houda find themselves trapped in a prestigious “marriage academy” run by two lying gurus.

Rashid Abdelhamid is a Palestinian-Serbian producer who was born in Algeria, educated in Europe, and has resided in Gaza. After an architecture career, Rashid collaborated with Gaza-based filmmakers to found the Made in Palestine Project, an independent initiative to promote Palestinian visual art. In 2013, he produced and starred in Condom Lead, the first Palestinian short chosen for official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Rashid is currently producing Apollo, a feature film by Palestinian directors Tarzan and Arab. In 2015, Made in Palestine Project’s first feature film Dégradé was selected for “La Semaine de la Critique” at Cannes.

Lotfi Achour* – Tunisia

Project Title: Red Path
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After a 16-year-old Tunisian shepherd is accused of being a police informant and decapitated by terrorists, his 14-year-old cousin sets out to return the severed head to their grieving family.

Lotfi Achour has directed a feature and three short films. His shorts have screened at over 200 festivals and have won over 80 awards at festivals like Clermont-Ferrand, Tokyo and Dubai. His short Law of the Lamb was selected for official competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and his feature Burning Hope won ten awards and was screened at the 2016 Carthage Film Festival, in addition to festivals in New York, Beirut, Cinemed, Durban, Lausanne, Geneva and Paris. Lotfi has also directed over 25 plays, including Macbeth, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the World Shakespeare Festival.

Fizza Ali Meerza – Pakistan

Project Title: There Was a Boy
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After falling victim to bonded child labor at the age of six, brave young Iqbal Masih embarks on a journey to fight for his freedom.

Fizza Ali Meerza is an acclaimed producer and screenwriter with hits such as Na Maloom Afraad (2014), Actor in Law (2016), Na Maloom Afraad 2 (2017) and Load Wedding (2018). Her films push Pakistani boundaries by focusing on social injustices in a satirical manner. As one of Pakistan’s first independent producers, Fizza’s ability to take an idea and make it into a substantial production has transformed the Pakistani film industry and inspired emerging filmmakers. Her enterprising approach has been lauded nationally and internationally, and Fizza remains one of the few Pakistani producers who have achieved creative independence in the industry.

Lubna Bagsair – United Arab Emirates

Project Title: Banana
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: An introverted teenage girl comes of age in her small town of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.

Lubna Bagsair is a director, producer and writer based in the United Arab Emirates. She has worked across narrative and documentary productions with Image Nation Abu Dhabi, where she gained experience in script development, screenwriting and creative producing. She has directed several narrative and documentary films. Her short film, Astray, has had notable festival success internationally. Before her filmmaking career, Lubna was a crime reporter for an English-language newspaper in Dubai, where she reported on criminals and atrocities alike.

Anissa Daoud – Tunisia

Anissa Daoud produces politically-charged cinema and theater projects. Her films have screened at over 250 festivals and received over 70 awards. In addition to documentaries and shorts for TV and the web, she produced Lotfi Achour’s feature Burning Hope and his award-winning shorts Father, selected for over 90 festivals, and Law of the Lamb, selected for over 80 festivals, including the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. She also produced Doria Achour’s Laisse moi finir, and The Rest Is the Work of Man, an official selection at Venice in 2016. Anissa is currently developing a documentary, two feature films and several shorts.

Ali El Arabi – Egypt

Project Title: The Legend of Zeinab and Noah
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: To delay her mother’s funeral, a teenage girl and her friend steal the body, escape their village, and embark on a road trip tinged with the supernatural.

Ali El-Arabi is an Egyptian documentary director/producer who got his start directing documentaries at Dream TV and went on to produce documentaries for ZDF, Stern TV and National Geographic. In 2015 he founded Ambient Light, a production company focused on issues like refugee displacement and women/children’s rights. His first feature documentary Captains of Zaatari participated at Final Cut in Venice, won an IEFTA sponsorship and won a prize at the 2019 CineGouna SpringBoard Platform. He also won a post-production grant at Malmo Market Forum. El Arabi holds a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Mansoura University.

Bader El Ketbi – United Arab Emirates

Project Title: Banana
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: An introverted teenage girl comes of age in her small town of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.

Bader Al Ketbi is an Emirati film producer who enjoys being involved in every stage of the filmmaking process, from development to delivery. His experience ranges from content development, to line producing and post-production producing, and he has worked on projects of varying scale, from big budget historical TV series to short web-based video projects. What Bader likes the most about being a producer is the mixture of creative and project management skills that are required to carry out the job. Bader’s interest in films comes from his childhood love of hearing and telling stories to others.

Ahmed El Zoghby – Egypt

Ahmed El Zoghby is an Egyptian filmmaker who studied Spanish at Ain Shams University and later took various workshops led by renowned Egyptian filmmaking pioneers. He started his journey as an assistant director on the film Clash, which opened the “Un Certain Regard” section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. He also co-founded the Cima film school, which helps students to develop their filmmaking technique. He co-wrote the feature Bershama alongside Mohamed Diab, Khaled Diab and Sherine Diab, and his current project, The Legend of Zeinab and Noah, is set to be directed by Yousry Nasrallah and produced by Ambient Light Film.

Ismahane Lahmar – Tunisia

Tunisian filmmaker Ismahane Lahmar trained at the Parisian Cinema School (ESRA) before obtaining her Masters degree in New York, where she directed her 2008 short On Your Grave. She wrote the feature Al Yasmine with support from Dubai Film Connection, and her shorts Rainbow and Get Married have screened at festivals in Tunisia and abroad. Ismahane wrote and directed the comedy feature Woh, and has attended international workshops with her projects I’ll Go to Hell and A Respectable Family. In 2019, she established Madame Prod, a company devoted to female-driven projects and genre cinema.

Nabeel Qureshi – Pakistan

Nabeel Qureshi is an award-winning Pakistani director and screenwriter who makes critically-acclaimed films that tackle social issues in a thought-provoking yet lighthearted manner. Nabeel’s realistic stories and unique style made waves in Pakistani cinema with his debut feature film, Na Maloom Afraad (2014), which won an award for best director. He followed up with his critically-acclaimed box office hit, Actor in Law (2016). Nabeel uses politics, pop culture and social commentary to create insightful, enthralling films that resonate with an audience. Touching on issues of economic inequality, his films hit close to home and aim to provoke change.

Gaby Zarazir – Lebanon

Project Title: The Fifteen
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In 1941, a pious but headstrong Lebanese woman’s attempt to host a lunch for the most important Catholic clergymen in the Middle East is derailed when the French Army invades.

Gaby Zarazir was born in Beirut. One day, he asked his mom for a brother. His mom nodded her head, and three years later on a beautiful April day, his mom delivered Michel. Gaby received a master’s degree in cinema from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA). He writes, directs and produces films with his brother Michel. Gaby is trying to live to 140 years old. The comedy, absurdity and madness in their special films will make you smile, even in the most serious of moments.

Michel Zarazir – Lebanon

Michel Zarazir was born on a beautiful day of April. At first, he was angry at Gaby for taking such a long time to ask for him. Michel received a master’s degree in cinema from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA). He writes, directs and produces films with his brother Gaby. Michel does his best to be elected Pope. The comedy, absurdity and madness in their special films will make you smile, even in the most serious of moments.

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LA Residency 2021/22

* denotes a virtual participant

Amjad Abu Alala – Sudan

Project Title: Goodbye Julia
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: As the partition of Sudan looms, a former singer from the north seeks redemption for the death of a southern man by hiring his unknowing widow as her maid.

Amjad Abu Alala is a Sudanese director and producer. His directorial feature debut, You Will Die at Twenty, was Sudan’s first submission to the Academy Awards. The film won the Lion of the Future “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for Best Debut Film at the Venice Film Festival. He has also directed and produced several short films, including Orange and Coffee (2004), Feathers of Birds (2007), Teena (2009) and Studio (2012). Amjad produces films through his Sudanese based company Station Films.

Dilek Aydin* – Turkey

Project Title: I’m Here, I’m Fine
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: New mother Filiz feels suffocated both in her family and professional life. While trying to find a way to connect back with her world to overcome her postpartum depression, she is drawn to solve another woman’s struggle, leading them both towards a path of healing.

Dilek Aydin was born in Ankara. She pursued Film Studies at Bogazici University and received her Master’s degree in Film and Television from Istanbul Bilgi University. She attended Karlsruhe University of Arts while earning her Master’s and studied Media Art. Returning to Turkey, she started working mainly in production, while developing and creating her own shorts. In 2017, she founded Istanbul-based Heimatlos Films, a production company that has produced acclaimed films such as feature documentary Mimaroglu (2020), a Visions du Reel contender, and feature fiction Ghosts (2020), the winner of Venice Critics’ Week. She continues to produce films with international appeal.

Prantik Basu – India

Project Title: Dengue
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: Amidst a sudden summer rain and fear of a viral outbreak, an unlikely friendship blossoms between a migrant worker and a medical student in the suburbs of Kolkata.

Prantik Basu is an independent filmmaker from India. His short film Sakhisona won a Tiger Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Best Short Film Prize at the Mumbai International Film Festival. Palace of Colours premiered at Berlinale, where it was nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Short Film. His latest film, Bela, a mid-length creative documentary, premiered at Visions du Réel and IFFR. He is currently working on his first feature film, Dengue, with support from the Hubert Bals Fund and the Patrick & Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund.

Kushal Batunge – India

Project Title: They Call Her Mafia
Project Type: Documentary Feature

Kushal Batunge was born and raised in Chharanagar, Ahmedabad. He graduated from Gujarat University with a degree in English literature, and has been making short documentaries for the last seven years. He has also worked as associate director on Vivek Chaudhary’s documentary I, Poppy and as assistant director on Dakxin Chhara’s Bollywood debut Sameer. He is co-writing a book on the oral history of the Chhara tribe with Dr. Henry Schwarz and has directed and performed short plays for Budhan Theatre for the last ten years. Batunge also worked as the editor for the Budhan Video Podcast, a community arts podcast about novel Coronavirus that was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund and Bhasha Research and Publication Centre in the year 2020.

Archana Borhade – India

Project Title: Purjey
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: A teenage couple is found in a sexually illicit position inside a mangled vintage car sparking a collision of caste and class between the families of the victims.

Archana Borhade is a producer, writer, cinematographer and director. She is the first Indian cinematographer to be featured in the prestigious American Cinematographer magazine as 2021’s “Rising Star of Cinematography.” She produced, co-wrote and shot Ashes on a Road Trip (Karkhanisanchi Waari), a dysfunctional family dramedy, which world-premiered at the 33rd Tokyo International film festival and was officially selected for film festivals in Shanghai, Toronto, New York, London, Los Angeles and Melbourne. Currently, she is co-writing a psychological thriller series, adapting for a biopic series, and is in talks to direct an indie science-fiction film.

Lamia Chraibi – Morocco

Project Title: Meskoun
Project Type: Television/Web Series
Logline: After surviving an accident while attempting to illegally enter Europe by sea, Lotfi finds himself burdened with the souls of the seven migrants who drowned.

Lamia Chraibi is the producer and founder of the production companies Moon a Deal Films (Paris) and La Prod (Casablanca). After studying Audiovisual Communication Management in France, she worked for various Parisian productions. She creatively assists directors, including Hicham Lasri, Narjiss Nejjar, Ismaïl Ferroukhi and Mohcine Besri. She co-produced Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas (Grand Prize, Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week), Bálint Kenyeres’ Tegnap (Locarno Film Festival) and Talal Selhami’s Achoura, a Moroccan fantasy film which won the Best Film Award at Hardline Festival and Special Mention of the Jury at Sitges Fantastic Film Festival.

Sumon Delwar – Bangladesh

Project Title: My Cousin
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: When the widow of a Bangladeshi migrant laborer discovers she’s HIV positive, her struggle for financial independence is met with opposition from her family and society at large.

Sumon Delwar is a writer, director and producer from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is an International Emerging Film Talent award winner. He directed and produced the short documentary The Passport, which aired on NHK World TV, and short films Boat of Life Going to Pahartali and JoloGuerilla, which won awards at international festivals. He was director/producer of the Bangladeshi portion of NHK’s three countries’ documentary The Barber Story. His documentary film My Cousin was selected for development platforms including Cannes Film Festival’s Marche du Film Industry Workshop, DocsBarcelona, Docedge Kolkata, Asian Forum for Documentary Co-Production Market and Dhaka Doclab.

Rohena Gera* – India

Project Title: Browner Than You
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: When a French grocery delivery boy and a divorced Indian heiress fall in love, they
have to overcome painful obstacles as they learn that love may not be enough.

Rohena Gera was educated at Stanford University (B.A.) and Sarah Lawrence College (M.F.A.), and has worked in film and television since 1997, starting in development at Paramount Pictures (NY), then writing for Indian film and television, and finally directing. Rohena’s first fiction feature Sir premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival (Critic’s Week 2018) where it won the Gan Foundation Award, followed by 18 international awards, including eight audience awards around the world. With successful theatrical releases in over 25 countries, Sir’s ticket sales in France are the 5th highest of any Indian film. Upon release in India, Sir shot to the #1 spot within two days, and stayed in the top 10 for 34 days in India, but also trended in other parts of the world. Gera’s microbudget feature documentary What’s Love Got to Do With It? premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival (2013) and was licensed by Netflix, after an independent limited theatrical release in India, and a U.S. theatrical-on-demand release through Gathr. Her nonprofit media work includes Stop the Hatred, an independent campaign against Islamophobia, and work for Breakthrough, a global human rights organization driving culture change in India and the US, as well the UN Foundation.

Mangesh Joshi – India

Mangesh Joshi started his filmmaking career by making documentaries and short films. His first feature length screenplay was selected for NFDC Writers’ Lab in 2007 and was mentored by Oscar winner Danis Tanovic, BAFTA nominee Olivia Hetreed and screenwriter Bernd Lichtenberg. Lathe Joshi (2016) was his second feature film as a writer/director/producer. The film was screened at 24 international film festivals and won 11 awards. Karkhanisanchi Waari, his third feature, had its world premiere at the 33rd Tokyo International film festival and was also screened at festivals in Goa, Chennai, Shanghai, London and Melbourne.

Soudade Kaadan* – Syria

Project Title: Nezouh
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: A bomb falls on Zeina’s house, opening for her a window to a new life.

Soudade Kaadan is a Syrian filmmaker, born in France in 1979. She was educated in theatre criticism at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Syria and in filmmaking at the Saint Joseph University in Lebanon. She has directed and produced documentary films for Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, UNDP and UNICEF. The Day I Lost My Shadow (2018) is her first feature fiction film, which was selected for the Venice and Toronto film festivals. At Venice, the film was awarded Best Debut.

Rajan Kathet – Nepal

Project Title: No Winter Holidays
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: Two widows struggle to survive and get along as they spend a harsh winter guarding an empty village in the Himalayas.

Rajan Kathet, a 2017 Berlinale Talents Alumnus, is a Kathmandu-based filmmaker working in fiction and documentary film. He earned his MA in Documentary Film Direction at DocNomads. Since returning to Nepal, Rajan has focused on his professional filmmaking career. His film Bare Trees in The Mist screened at major film festivals including Toronto International Film Festival, Tampere Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Encounters Film Festival UK and many others. He is currently working on the feature documentary film No Winter Holidays and the feature fiction film A Bride and A Widow.

Sezen Kayhan* – Turkey

Project Title: Women with Purple Violets
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: An all-female soccer fan club played a role in the liberation of women in a conservative Turkey. Four members reunite 51 years later for a last match before their team and stadium are torn apart.

Sezen Kayhan is a multidisciplinary filmmaker with a degree in Art History and Archaeology, and a PhD in Film Studies and Visual Culture. She has worked in art and production departments in Turkey, Italy and the US. Her short films Elene and A Hard Day in the Empire have won awards at prestigious international festivals including Tribeca, BFI London and Palm Springs. Her short Time of the Plums qualified for an Academy Award in 2013. She is a founding member of the Turkish women filmmakers initiative Women with Movie Cameras that accelerates the careers of women working in the screen industries in the Middle Eastern countries.

Mohamed Kordofani – Sudan

Mohamed Kordofani is a Sudanese filmmaker. His short film Nyerkuk won the Black Elephant Award for Best Sudanese Film and other honors at the Carthage Film Festival, Oran International Arab Film Festival, and FCAAA in Milan. His short Kejers Prison screened during the Sudanese revolution at the sit-in square in front of thousands of protesters, and his documentary A Tour in Love Republic was the first pro-revolution film to be broadcast on Sudan’s national TV. He collaborated on You Will Die at Twenty in script development, production and post-production. He is currently developing Goodbye Julia with Station Films.

Hicham Lasri – Morocco

Hicham Lasri is a filmmaker of the new generation of Moroccan cinema. His critically-acclaimed directorial debut feature The End dramatizes the last days of King Hassan. His feature film They are the Dogs draws a parallel between the Arab Spring and the 1981 Moroccan “bread riots” and screened at several film festivals. His film The Sea Is Behind premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival, screened at the Berlinale, and won numerous awards at international festivals. Starve Your Dog premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was selected for the Berlinale. Headbang Lullaby and Jahilya also screened at the Berlinale.

Suzannah Mirghani – Sudan

Project Title: Cotton Queen
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, a 15-year-old girl is given two options: accept an arranged marriage or be circumcised. Her final choice will change the village forever.

Suzannah Mirghani is a writer, researcher and independent filmmaker. She is a media studies and museum studies graduate and publishes creative and scholarly work on a variety of social issues. Mixed-race Sudanese and Russian, she is interested in stories that examine the complexity of identity. Suzannah is the writer, director and producer of Al-Sit (2020), which won Best of Fest at Academy Award-qualifying LA Shorts (2021) and the Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival (2021). Her other shorts include Virtual Voice (2021), Caravan (2016) and Hind’s Dream (2014).

Deyali Mukherjee – India

Project Title: A New Sweetness
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After losing the love of his life, an introverted boy decides to take control of his life while waiting for his lover to return.

Deyali Mukherjee is an independent filmmaker based in India. She directed her first anthology feature film Three Auspicious Hours and also produced the independent feature film Half Songs. She is a graduate of the Film & Television Institute of India and International Film Business Academy of Busan Asian Film School, South Korea. She started her film career by assisting Sri Lankan director Vimukthi Jayasundara on his Bengali feature film Chatrak (Director’s Fortnight, Cannes 2011). Deyali is also developing her first documentary feature, The Village Girl Who Ran, which won the Let’sDoc Fellowship Award for Best Project in Development. Deyali has also worked in film as an art director, production designer, and cinematographer.

Sunir Pandey – Nepal

Sunir Pandey is a student of Nepali media, culture and history. He has worked at the English language weekly Nepali Times as a journalist and as a freelancer in media and communications for local and international organizations. No Winter Holidays is his first film as a director, writer and producer.

Anup Poudel – Nepal

Project Title: Elephants in the Fog
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: When a young transgender woman from rural Nepal disappears while patrolling wild elephants, the blame falls on the leader of her trans community, who must find her before their imminent yearly ritual.

Anup Poudel is a producer based in Kathmandu. A graduate of Oscar College of Film Studies in Kathmandu, Anup also recently graduated from a film producing course at Busan Asian Film School, South Korea. His short films have premiered at several international film festivals including Venice, Busan, Winterthur, Locarno, Montreal, Uppsala and Galway. He was awarded the Democracy Video Challenge Prize by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2010. Anup recently completed two short films and a feature, which are currently being submitted to film festivals.

Sriram Raja – India

Sriram Raja is a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, and in 2014 co-founded SRDM Motion Pictures, a film production house based in Mumbai, India. SRDM’s debut feature film Three Auspicious Hours was released in Indian theaters in 2020. Their second feature film Half Songs was released on Amazon Prime Video in the US, UK and Cineplex, Canada. A New Sweetness (Notun Gur) is their next feature film in development. Raja began developing the film along with the writer-director Deyali Mukherjee at Produire au Sud Workshop (Kolkata 2020). A New Sweetness was also part of the NFDC Film Bazaar Co-Production Market. Sriram Raja began his career as an assistant producer on the India-Brazil co-production O Sonho Bollywoodiano (2008, Portuguese), produced and directed by Beatriz Seigner.

Abinash Bikram Shah – Nepal

Abinash Bikram Shah is an award-winning writer and director. He is an alumnus of Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Berlinale Talents and Asian Film Academy. Abinash has written, directed and produced short films that have won awards at several international film festivals. He has written feature films that premiered at Berlin International Film Festival and Venice International Film Critics’ Week. His film The Black Hen was awarded Best Film at the latter, and selected as Nepal’s official entry for the Academy Awards in Best Foreign Language Film. He is the creator and showrunner of two of Nepal’s most popular television series. He currently serves as a Programming Director of Ekadeshma International Short Film Festival and teaches at a film school in Kathmandu.

Beste Yamalıoğlu* – Turkey

Project Title: Women with Purple Violets
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: An all-female soccer fan club played a role in the liberation of women in a conservative Turkey. Four members reunite 51 years later for a last match before their team and stadium are torn apart.

Beste Yamalıoğlu earned her BA and MA in Philosophy and a film certificate at Bogazici University, and is a PhD candidate at Kadir Has University. She co-founded Ehemm Production, serving as a producer and script advisor. She was selected to the 20th Sarajevo Talents Producers program and MFI/Training for Script Editors. She mentors at Meetings on the Bridge Short Film Workshop and co-produced Emre Erdogdu’s feature The List of Those Who Love Me (Best Film, 40th Istanbul Film Festival). She is also producing Zeynep Güzel’s feature When the Sun Comes Out. She currently works at Karma Films as a content producer.

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LA Residency 2022

Tasmiah Afrin – Bangladesh

Project Title: Fear-Y-Tale
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: A psychological thriller anthology set in Bangladesh follows five short stories that explore fear and the dark side of humanity.

Tasmiah Afrin (Mou) is a Bangladeshi writer/director. Her debut short film Statement After My Poet Husband’s Death premiered at Festival Tous Courts, France in 2016, and won six international awards. Her short film Heroine’s One Night won best film at Meril-Prothom Alo Fame Factory in 2019. Her documentary Tokai-201 was awarded Best Short at Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival in 2014. She received the Bangladesh Government Film Grant in 2021 for her short documentary project My Grandma’s Home. Her feature film project Fear-Y-Tale was awarded the Screenplay Development Fund from West Meets East South Asian Screenplay Lab in 2022. Tasmiah has received support from the Cannes Marche du Film & Locarno Open Doors. Tasmiah participated in the AFS fellowship program at USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2022.

Şeyhmus Altun – Turkey

Project Title: Esma
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After a chemical fire ravages her farming community, a young girl struggles with the environmental effects as well as her father’s disregard for her dreams of education.

Şeyhmus Altun was born in Diyarbakır in 1988. He graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University’s Cinema-Television Department in 2011. He started his Master’s Degree at the same university in 2016. After working in various positions at Dinamo Istanbul Film Production Company, where he has been working since 2009, he transferred to Mental Film, of which he was one of the founders, in 2018. He is still actively working as a commercial director and has collaborated with brands such as P&G, Unilever, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Ülker and Arçelik for national and international advertising campaigns. The commercials he directed received awards from prestigious festivals such as Kristal Elma, Effie and Felis. He has participated in many national and international film festivals and received awards with his short films since 2017. His last short film, All Lights We Can’t See (2020), screened in many festivals and received various awards from Turkey, Russia, Italy and Canada.

Ela Alyamac – Turkey

Project Title: Hello
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: Based on a true story, Turkish photographer Ara Güler fulfills his father’s dream of returning to his home over three magical days.

Ela Alyamac was born in Istanbul in 1978. She graduated from Leysin American School in Switzerland. She studied film production and film studies at Chapman University in Southern California. Fairy Dust (2008), a romantic drama about growing up, making peace with the past and believing in miracles, is her first feature length film. She wrote, directed and edited Lost Birds (2015) with Aren Perdeci. Lost Birds, a historical fairy tale, is the first film to depict the great tragedy of the 1915 Armenian exile in a film shot in Turkey. The film was featured in American Cinematographer’s September 2015 issue, singing praises to its stunning cinematography. Lost Birds’ screenplay was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library’s Core Collection.

Lanka Bandaranayke – Sri Lanka

Project Title: The Hail
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After a suicide bomb attack in Sri Lanka, the political and social practices of multiple people collide in unexpected ways.

Lanka Bandaranayke is a producer, director, writer and actress from Sri Lanka. Lanka directed, produced and wrote her first short film Tradition in 2016. The film was screened at more than 45 international film festivals including Open Doors screenings at Locarno Film Festival, followed by an international and national award. She was a jury member for fiction in Sound & Image Challenge International Festival in 2018 and 2019 at Macau. She joined as a curator at the same festival in 2019. In 2020, Lanka made her short film Inheritance, with a partnership with British Council Sri Lanka. She finished her latest short film, Mahasona, in 2021 and has written and directed five short films overall.

Shyam Bora – India

Project Title: Second Chance
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After experiencing the first major trauma of her young life, Nia retreats to her family summer home in the Himalayas, where time, nature and unlikely friendships help her heal.

Shyam Bora is the Co-Founder of, and a producer at, Metanormal Motion Pictures. His debut feature as a producer, Aamis, premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. His latest feature, Emuthi Puthi, was shot completely on iPhone, in collaboration with Apple Inc. India, and was released theatrically across the regional market in June 2022. Other credits, in various roles, include executive producer of Kothanodi (Busan IFF 2015), line producer of Angry Indian Goddesses (TIFF 2015); and India distribution executive of Gulabi Gang (IDFA 2012). Shyam is a graduate of the Busan Asian Film School’s International Film Business Academy (IFBA) and the Buncheon NAFF Fantastic Film School.

Anirban Dutta – India

Project Title: Nocturnes
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: In the dense forests of the Eastern Himalayas, a female scientist and a young man from an indigenous community explore the secret world of moths, revealing our connection with these nocturnal creatures.

Anirban Dutta is a film producer, director, still photographer and a media educator based in Delhi, India. A graduate in Economics from Calcutta University, he started his career in television in 1996, and set up the film company Metamorphosis Film Junction in 2003. He has directed and produced several documentary films and created many photographic essays on diverse topics such as children’s rights, environmental issues, health, gender and sexuality. His films have traveled to various film festivals including New York Short Film Festival, the San Sebastian Human Rights Film Festival, Al Jazeera International Film Festival and MIFF.

Marie-Louise Elia – Lebanon

Project Title: The Savior
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: An 89-year-old Lebanese woman and her 11-year-old grandson attempt to save the world from an alleged apocalypse by attending one funeral per day until doomsday.

Marie-Louise Elia is a Lebanese screenwriter, director and editor. She studied film directing and screenwriting in Beirut and New York. She directed several short films such as Take 18 (Aphrodite Cinematic Award at CIFF 2018) and Beirut in Black & White, as well as documentaries including Tripoli: une fraternité active (co-directed with Mohamed Sabbah). Marie-Louise has also worked as an editor on many documentaries and short fiction films, some of which are currently having their festival run. In September 2014, she was selected among the editing talents of the Beirut Talents. Marie-Louise is currently developing three projects: The Savior, a feature comedy; Yearning, a short dramatic film; and another feature screenplay We Find You Anywhere, runner-up for the Most Promising Screenplay prize at the Cinemai’yat Film Festival (2016). She is also a lecturer at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), Saint Joseph University and formerly at the Lebanese University.

Moufida Fedhila – Tunisia

Project Title: Generation
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: When a 19-year-old woman discovers her brother’s death was caused by a corrupt mayor, she challenges the authorities in her western Tunisian village by running in the municipal elections.

Moufida Fedhila is a Tunisian filmmaker, producer and visual artist. Her work is the subject of studies by academic researchers and publications such as the “Narratives of Social Protest: Personal and Political” at Columbia University (New York). Her film Aya was selected by more than 200 film festivals and won more than 20 awards, such as the Golden Tanit (Carthage Film Festival) and Best African Short Film (Durban International Film Festival). Moufida Fedhila co-founded Yol Film House with Mehdi Hmili and produced several award-winning films. Her last production, Streams, had its world premiere at the 74th Locarno Film Festival and won Best Acting performance at the Cairo International Film Festival. Her films were selected to several production forums such as Cannes Film Festival, Berlinale Talent and Qumra (Doha Film Institute). At the 34th Vues d’Afrique International Film Festival, she received a tribute for her body of work.

Ranu Ghosh – India

Project Title: Dare to Dream
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: Dare to Dream travels into the heartlands of tribal Rajasthan, in Northern India, to explore social issues of early marriage and patriarchal dominance, where a young girl refuses to settle down with in-laws and continues her endeavor to be a school teacher.

Ranu Ghosh is an award-winning independent film director, producer and cinematographer. She co-directed The Magnificent Journey: Times and Tales of Democracy with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Vinayak Bajerjee. Her film Quarter Number 4/11 premiered at numerous international festivals including Busan and IDFA. Her audio-visual installation “Dialogue Remains” was selected for the European Biennale Manifesta 7. She was the producer, co-director and co-cinematographer for Like Whirlwinds, supported by TED and Sundance. As cinematographer, she worked on Revolutionary Optimist, winner of the Sundance Hilton Sustainability Award, and Better Seeds, which won the IDFA Green Screen Award.

Mehdi Hmili – Tunisia

Mehdi Hmili is a Tunisian director, screenwriter and producer. He studied cinema in Tunis and Paris. In 2016, he released his first feature film Thala Mon Amour, a love story that takes place during the Tunisian revolution. He co-founded Yol Film House with Moufida Fedhila in Tunis and produced several award-winning fiction films and documentaries, which screened at several international festivals. In 2019, he participated in La Fabrique Cinémas du Monde (Cannes Film Festival) with the feature documentary Fouledh. His second feature film, Streams, was selected in official competition and world premiere at the 74th Locarno Film Festival and won the Best Acting Performance at the 43rd Cairo International Film Festival. Mehdi Hmili is part of the new wave of young Tunisian filmmakers and he is a major figure in the current Tunisian cinematographic landscape. He is a Torino Film Lab Alumnus.

Haya Fatima Iqbal – Pakistan

Project Title: Beyond Victory
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: Pakistan’s newly-created blind women’s cricket team works to compete on an international stage, but finds themselves belabored with infighting and ableism.

Haya Fatima Iqbal is an Academy and two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker from Pakistan. Haya co-produced A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Short in 2016 and the Emmy Award for Best Documentary in 2017. In 2019, Haya’s co-produced feature documentary Armed With Faith won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Politics & Government Film. She is also Co-Founder of the Documentary Association of Pakistan (DAP). DAP provides training and networking opportunities to Pakistani documentary filmmakers. Haya is a Fulbright alumna and an Acumen Fellow, holding an MA in News & Documentary from NYU.

Ariq Anam Khan – Bangladesh

Project Title: The Fallen Star
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: A struggling actor at the twilight of his career faces an existential crisis after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He slowly becomes delusional as he struggles to cope with the disease, which makes him rethink his career, relationships and dreams.

Ariq Anam Khan is a versatile writer, director and producer from Bangladesh. Born into a culturally renowned family in Dhaka, he has been working in the Bangladesh film, OTT and theatre industry since 2008. He has also worked as location manager on several international feature films shot in Bangladesh, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Extraction. Being an ardent lover of cinema from a very early age, Ariq focused his attention on learning about filmmaking and has participated in countless workshops, courses and masterclasses over the years. In 2017, he was accepted into the MA Filmmaking programme at the London Film School in 2017 where he completed his degree with distinction in 2019. In 2020, Ariq wrote and directed his short film Transit, which was featured in top festivals around the world such as Busan, Clermont-Ferrand, LA Shorts, Encounters and more.

Rajesh Prasad Khatri – Nepal

Project Title: Black & White Photo
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: Jaya, a young boy in secondary school, goes through a series of hurdles to acquire black & white photos in order to complete his school’s board exam registration form, but the failure to secure the photos compels him to flee to India.

Rajesh Prasad Khatri, a self-taught filmmaker, used to work as a teacher in his village’s school. A Curious Girl (2017), his debut short film, won the Best Short Film Award at Berlinale Generation Kplus Competition. A Scarecrow (2020) is his second short film, which won Second Prize at the AFA-MPA film pitch competition and world premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2020. Currently, he is developing his debut feature film, Black & White Photo, which has been selected at Asian Project Market, BIFF (2019), Berlinale Talents (Script Station, 2020) and received the Script Development Fund of Asian Cinema Fund, BIFF (2019). He is an alumnus of AFA (2018) and Berlinale Talents Campus (2020).

Subhadra Mahajan – India

Subhadra Mahajan was born and brought up in Himachal Pradesh, India. She has had a long collaboration with filmmaker Pan Nalin, most notably in co-writing Angry Indian Goddesses (2015), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, was runner up for the Grolsch Audience Choice Award, and was released theatrically in over 60 countries. Angry Indian Goddesses won accolades for being groundbreaking in its truthful, unapologetic depiction of womanhood in contemporary India. Other films she has worked on with Nalin include Faith Connections (2013); Beyond the Known World (2017); and Last Film Show, which is in post-production. She is currently developing several screenplays and feature films – some being solo efforts, others collaborations. Subhadra has also worked extensively in advertising films, and kickstarted directing independently with six “brandless” fashion films, which earned selections at London Fashion Film Festival and Sarajevo Fashion Film Festival in 2019.

Aren Perdeci – Turkey

Aren Perdeci was born in Istanbul in 1979. He graduated from Galatasaray High School and studied Film Production and Film Studies at Bilgi University’s cinema department. He completed his masters at Marmara University’s Film and TV department. His first feature film, Wrong Time Travelers (2007), was shot on super 16mm with a highly stylized directing approach. Wrong Time Travelers entered both local and international film festivals. He wrote, directed and edited Lost Birds (2015) with Ela Alyamac. Lost Birds, a historical fairy tale, is the first film to depict the great tragedy of the 1915 Armenian exile in a film shot in Turkey. Aren Perdeci also served as cinematographer on Lost Birds. The film was featured in American Cinematographer’s September 2015 issue, singing praises to its stunning cinematography. Lost Birds’ screenplay was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library’s Core Collection.

Ram Krishna Pokharel – Nepal

Project Title: Across the Rainbow Bridge
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After having a premonition of his own death, an old miller from Nepal embarks on a journey to understand the miraculous circle of life, his mortality, and the future of his childless wife without him.

Ram Krishna Pokharel is an award-winning film producer best known for winning an Emmy Award for A Mountain to Climb (2017). His feature and short films have been invited to major international film festivals such as Berlinale, Busan, Palm Springs, APSA, Fribourg and many more. Ram Krishna is currently producing several feature projects that have been invited to platforms such as Locarno Festival’s Open Doors Program, Film Bazaar Goa, and Cannes Film Festival’s Cinefondation l’Atelier program. He has also worked on numerous international feature films, short films, TV documentaries, brand commercials and reality shows that were shot in Nepal. Ram Krishna is a founding board member of the Nepal Film Campus established in 2019 which offers a four-year BA program in Film Studies affiliated with Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He is committed to providing opportunities to the new and emerging talents from Nepal and the region.

Wadih Safieddine – Lebanon

Project Title: Faraya
Project Type: Episodic
Logline: At a posh Lebanese ski resort, the discovery of a Saudi investor’s corpse jeopardizes the real estate project he represents and the economic growth it could bring to the residents.

Wadih Safieddine grew up in Paris during the Lebanese civil war before returning to settle in his country. He was a journalist; copywriter; manager of the band Soap Kills; creator of the Espace SD art center; and produced hundreds of hours of TV shows on culture, the Francophonie, Europe, and the Euro-Mediterranean partnership with Lebanese cinema, broadcast on the regional news channel NBN. He later created two successive production houses (né à Beyrouth and LCI Entertainment), before partnering with Manasvi Gosalia to open the Beirut office of Deja Vu, headquartered in Dubai.

Asmita Shrish – Nepal

Project Title: Higher
Project Type: Documentary Feature
Logline: Higher illustrates the agricultural practice of transhumance in Nepal, delving into the relationship between yaks, shepherds and the mountains as an act of balancing the ecosystem. The film is an insightful reflection on an interconnectivity adversely affected by climate change.

Asmita Shrish is an independent filmmaker based in Kathmandu. Her filmmaking practice oscillates from documentaries to moving images and dramas, anchoring real issues and narratives to navigate and represent identity within physical and metaphysical space. Her films Auntie Ganga, Gyalmu’s House and Chandra have won multiple awards and have been screened at more than 100 film festivals around the world including Locarno, São Paulo, Busan, London, IDFA, Sheffield, Banff, Edinburgh and Fribourg, to name a few. Asmita is an alumna of Berlinale Talents (2020), BFI Network/BAFTA crew (2019/2020), Berwick LUX project bootcamp (2019), Asian Film Academy alumni (2014) and is a fellow of IDFA Academy (2011).

Anupama Srinivasan – India

Anupama Srinivasan is a filmmaker, film teacher and curator based in Delhi, India. She completed her BA in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and went on to study filmmaking at the Film & Television Institute of India Pune. She has been making documentaries for the past 18 years, often shooting and editing her own work. Her films have been screened at various film festivals including 100 Years of Cinema Centenary Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, FIPA Biarritz, Mumbai International Film Festival, Film Southasia Kathmandu, ImagineIndia Madrid, Peloponnisos Film Festival, Kino Otok Isola and Kara Filmfest. She has been visiting faculty at National Institute of Design, Ashoka University, SUPVA Rohtak, Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication and Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

Nadim Tabet – Lebanon

Nadim Tabet became interested in cinema in his early teen years, first by watching films and then by shooting short fictions on video. In 1999, he traveled to France to study history, philosophy and cinema. Parallel to his studies, he directed several short films and cinematographic essays. In 2001, Nadim was a founding member of the Lebanese Film Festival. Afterwards, he was responsible for the selection and programming of several festivals. In 2017, he released his first feature film, One of These Days. He is currently preparing his second feature film, Under Construction.