Yilmaz Güney Short Film Competition Results

Yilmaz Güney Short Film Competition Jury Members...

Kassem Hawal

Iraqi director and writer born in Basra, Iraq in 1940. In 1959, he joined the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad where he studied acting and film directing for five years. After producing, directing and acting in number of films he left his country and went to Lebanon. He was one of the founders of "the Alternative Arab Cinema" movement in Damascus in 1972. His return to |Iraq in 1975 did not last long and he left for Lebanon again in 1977 becoming Chairman of the Iraqi writers, Journalists and Artist's League in Exile, and later acting as a member of its General Secretariat and executive committee. Since he has been living in Europe he has directed many films and plays. He served as a member of the juries of the Moscow Film Festival in 1983, the Arab Film Festival in Rotterdam in 2001, the Arab Film Festival in Paris in 2004 and as Chairman of the jury of the Etiuda Film Festival in Krakow, Poland in 2003.

Mano Khalil

Kurdish Director born in 1964 in Kurdistan, in Syria. Studied History and Law at Damascus University 1981-86 before moving to Czechoslovakia to study cinema. Worked as an independent film director 1986-94 for Czechoslovakian and later for Slovakian television. Has lived in Switzerland since 1996 working as an independent film director and making many short films and documentaries. His latest documentaries DAVID THE TOLHILDAN and AL-ANFAL were shown in last year's festival.

Sirwan Rehim

Kurdish director and critic born in Kirkuk city in South Kurdistan (Iraq) in 1967. He spent the last 16 years working in Kurdish media channels and contributed to their development. He is one of the founders of MEDTV, the first Kurdish satellite TV channel, and also the founder of TISHK TV. He has made several TV programmes and documentaries and is the author of several books on art and literature. Currently he is writing on cinema for Geshbin, an art magazine in Hewler.

Chiman Rahimi

Chiman Rahimi was born in Sanandaj city in East Kurdistan (Iran). She left Iran when she was 18 years old and has lived in London since then. She studied film at the London College of Printing before making several short films and documentaries. In recent years she has also helped in the Kurdish community and been involved in making films and reportages on Kurdish women for Kurdish satellite T.V.

Binevsa Bêrîvan

Binevsa Berivan is of Kurdish origin from North Kurdistan (Turkey) and was born in Istanbul. She has lived in Belgium as a political refugee since 1997. She studied film at the Film School INRACI in Brussels and made her first short film GO ON AND YOU WILL BE FREE in 2003. The following year her short film THE MELODY OF THE PETIT CHATEAU won awards at several film festivals. In 2006 she shot her first documentary TRACES, THE PEOPLE OF THE PEACOCK.

Akram Kiro

Kurdish Director, actor, script and playwright. Born in 1973 in Syria. Studied and worked in Beirut and Germany. He has scripted and directed a number of documentaries and short films as well as acting in many of them. He has lived in Germany since 2002 where he works on theatre projects for children. His film STONE ON STONE will be shown in this year's festival.

Benjamin Hall

Benjamin Hall's fascination with Middle Eastern cinema began when he attended the Fajr film festival in Tehran in 2002 and then took part in a workshop with Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami in London in 2004. It is largely due to these experiences that he became interested in the London Kurdish Film Festival. He has worked in production at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles and on the Culture desk of the Sunday Times in London. Currently he is writing a dissertation at university in London while also continuing to make short films.