Our Featured Directors
From Norway to Los Angeles, through Iraq, Kurdistan, and Somalia—meet the voices behind the journeys, the crossings, and the connections.
Hisham Zaman
Norway / Kurdistan
Born in Kurdistan and based in Norway, Hisham Zaman is a multi-award-winning director whose films—including Bawke, Letter to the King, and Winterland—grapple with exile, longing, and intergenerational trauma. His feature A Happy Day premiered at Berlinale 2023. Zaman’s style is visually poetic and emotionally raw.
Gunhild Westhagen Magnor
Norway
Best known for the global hit The Optimists, Gunhild Westhagen Magnor has a gift for capturing resilience in everyday life. In On High Heels in America, she follows Norwegian women navigating identity, style, and aging in the U.S. A journalist by training, her work balances charm with layered social commentary.
Irasj Asanti
Norway / Iran
An emerging voice from the Iranian-Norwegian diaspora, Asanti creates lyrical films rooted in silence, memory, and longing. Sand is a quiet yet powerful meditation on displacement, praised for its visual minimalism and emotional gravity. His work prioritizes introspection over dialogue. Asanti crafts cinema that breathes and listens.
Lisa Cole
United States
An Emmy-nominated director and Sundance Fellow, Lisa Cole’s work interrogates borders with fierce compassion. Bienvenidos a Los Ángeles draws from her personal encounters with immigration enforcement. Cole also co-wrote The Girl from Nagasaki and frequently collaborates with human rights organizations.
Leiv Igor Devold
Norway
Leiv Igor Devold brings a transnational lens to contemporary European stories. Born in Poland and raised in Norway, he directed Norwegian Dream, a tender film about a Polish immigrant’s queer love story in rural Norway. He teaches at the Norwegian Film School and holds a PhD in film aesthetics.
Harald Flem
Norway
Harald Flem is a Norwegian historian, educator, and filmmaker whose work reintroduces pivotal national figures to contemporary audiences. His biopic Hans Nielsen Hauge: The Man Who Changed Norway is both a dramatic retelling and a pedagogical tool, used in classrooms and churches alike. Flem is driven by a passion for Norwegian cultural roots.
Armita Keyani
Norway
An emerging voice in Norwegian cinema, Armita Keyani crafts emotionally intricate films about migration, family, and identity. Born in Iran and raised in Norway, she brings a cross-cultural sensitivity to her work. Her short film Customs was nominated for Best Norwegian Short at the Amanda Awards and has been praised for its subtle commentary on cultural displacement.
Jean Liu
United States
Jean Liu is a Taiwanese-American director whose films are known for their comic timing and cultural insight. Learning English is a semi-autobiographical short that premiered at the CAAMFest and went viral on YouTube. Liu is a graduate of NYU Tisch and a contributor to The New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs” section.
Errol Morris
United States
Errol Morris is a towering figure in documentary cinema. Known for The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War—which earned him an Oscar—his investigative lens has reshaped nonfiction filmmaking. His latest, Separated, examines the cruelty of U.S. immigration policy with clinical precision and moral urgency. He holds a MacArthur Fellowship and has directed for Netflix and Showtime.
Ibrahim Mursal Warsame
Norway / Somalia
A filmmaker and public intellectual, Ibrahim Mursal bridges cultures through stories of migration, queerness, and belonging. Born in Somalia and raised in Norway, his work—including the doc The Art of Sin and the short African Family—has been featured at IDFA and Sheffield DocFest. He speaks openly about intersectionality and diaspora narratives.
Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz
United States
This sibling duo from Los Angeles merges sharp wit and surrealist flair in their cinematic storytelling. Their short film A Lien—a SXSW Grand Jury Award winner—blends absurdity with poignancy, earning praise from IndieWire for its “playful and piercing” tone. Graduates of CalArts, the brothers draw on backgrounds in visual arts and narrative theory to craft films that are as intellectually curious as they are visually striking. Together, they explore identity and alienation through a lens that is equal parts comedic and compassionate.
Learn more
Charlotte Røhder Tvedt
Norway
With a background in journalism and political activism, Charlotte Røhder Tvedt creates documentaries that illuminate civic struggle with poetic intimacy. Her 2023 feature 15 Years Later revisits a protest movement she first documented in 2008, showing how time transforms ideals and people alike. Her films often screen at HUMAN and Bergen Film Festival.
Jan Harald Tomassen
Norway
A documentarian with a background in ethnography, Tomassen often traces ancestral stories across borders. His film Oldemors Reise explores a family migration from Norway to the U.S., interweaving archival footage with contemporary reflections. He works closely with NAHA and has presented his research in both film and academic formats.
Sara Margrethe Oskal
Norway / Sápmi
Oskal is a Sámi filmmaker, poet, and academic whose work fiercely defends Indigenous identity. Her debut feature The Tundra Within Me premiered at TIFF and won Best Indigenous Film at ImagineNATIVE. She holds a doctorate in performance and blends oral storytelling with experimental technique.
Joern Utkilen
Norway
Joern Utkilen’s films are darkly comic explorations of modern alienation. Beat Around the Bush was Norway’s official short film entry at the 2021 Berlinale, earning praise for its deadpan tone and biting satire. Utkilen has also worked in theatre and radio, and is known for challenging institutional absurdities.
Hisham Zaman
Norway / Kurdistan
Born in Kurdistan and based in Norway, Hisham Zaman is a multi-award-winning director whose films—including Bawke, Letter to the King, and Winterland—grapple with exile, longing, and intergenerational trauma. His feature A Happy Day premiered at Berlinale 2023. Zaman’s style is visually poetic and emotionally raw.
Gunhild Westhagen Magnor
Norway
Best known for the global hit The Optimists, Gunhild Westhagen Magnor has a gift for capturing resilience in everyday life. In On High Heels in America, she follows Norwegian women navigating identity, style, and aging in the U.S. A journalist by training, her work balances charm with layered social commentary.
Irasj Asanti
Norway / Iran
An emerging voice from the Iranian-Norwegian diaspora, Asanti creates lyrical films rooted in silence, memory, and longing. Sand is a quiet yet powerful meditation on displacement, praised for its visual minimalism and emotional gravity. His work prioritizes introspection over dialogue. Asanti crafts cinema that breathes and listens.
Lisa Cole
United States
An Emmy-nominated director and Sundance Fellow, Lisa Cole’s work interrogates borders with fierce compassion. Bienvenidos a Los Ángeles draws from her personal encounters with immigration enforcement. Cole also co-wrote The Girl from Nagasaki and frequently collaborates with human rights organizations.
Leiv Igor Devold
Norway
Leiv Igor Devold brings a transnational lens to contemporary European stories. Born in Poland and raised in Norway, he directed Norwegian Dream, a tender film about a Polish immigrant’s queer love story in rural Norway. He teaches at the Norwegian Film School and holds a PhD in film aesthetics.
Harald Flem
Norway
Harald Flem is a Norwegian historian, educator, and filmmaker whose work reintroduces pivotal national figures to contemporary audiences. His biopic Hans Nielsen Hauge: The Man Who Changed Norway is both a dramatic retelling and a pedagogical tool, used in classrooms and churches alike. Flem is driven by a passion for Norwegian cultural roots.
Armita Keyani
Norway
An emerging voice in Norwegian cinema, Armita Keyani crafts emotionally intricate films about migration, family, and identity. Born in Iran and raised in Norway, she brings a cross-cultural sensitivity to her work. Her short film Customs was nominated for Best Norwegian Short at the Amanda Awards and has been praised for its subtle commentary on cultural displacement.
Jean Liu
United States
Jean Liu is a Taiwanese-American director whose films are known for their comic timing and cultural insight. Learning English is a semi-autobiographical short that premiered at the CAAMFest and went viral on YouTube. Liu is a graduate of NYU Tisch and a contributor to The New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs” section.
Errol Morris
United States
Errol Morris is a towering figure in documentary cinema. Known for The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War—which earned him an Oscar—his investigative lens has reshaped nonfiction filmmaking. His latest, Separated, examines the cruelty of U.S. immigration policy with clinical precision and moral urgency. He holds a MacArthur Fellowship and has directed for Netflix and Showtime.
Ibrahim Mursal Warsame
Norway / Somalia
A filmmaker and public intellectual, Ibrahim Mursal bridges cultures through stories of migration, queerness, and belonging. Born in Somalia and raised in Norway, his work—including the doc The Art of Sin and the short African Family—has been featured at IDFA and Sheffield DocFest. He speaks openly about intersectionality and diaspora narratives.
Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz
United States
This sibling duo from Los Angeles merges sharp wit and surrealist flair in their cinematic storytelling. Their short film A Lien—a SXSW Grand Jury Award winner—blends absurdity with poignancy, earning praise from IndieWire for its “playful and piercing” tone. Graduates of CalArts, the brothers draw on backgrounds in visual arts and narrative theory to craft films that are as intellectually curious as they are visually striking. Together, they explore identity and alienation through a lens that is equal parts comedic and compassionate.
Learn more
Charlotte Røhder Tvedt
Norway
With a background in journalism and political activism, Charlotte Røhder Tvedt creates documentaries that illuminate civic struggle with poetic intimacy. Her 2023 feature 15 Years Later revisits a protest movement she first documented in 2008, showing how time transforms ideals and people alike. Her films often screen at HUMAN and Bergen Film Festival.
Jan Harald Tomassen
Norway
A documentarian with a background in ethnography, Tomassen often traces ancestral stories across borders. His film Oldemors Reise explores a family migration from Norway to the U.S., interweaving archival footage with contemporary reflections. He works closely with NAHA and has presented his research in both film and academic formats.
Sara Margrethe Oskal
Norway / Sápmi
Oskal is a Sámi filmmaker, poet, and academic whose work fiercely defends Indigenous identity. Her debut feature The Tundra Within Me premiered at TIFF and won Best Indigenous Film at ImagineNATIVE. She holds a doctorate in performance and blends oral storytelling with experimental technique.
Joern Utkilen
Norway
Joern Utkilen’s films are darkly comic explorations of modern alienation. Beat Around the Bush was Norway’s official short film entry at the 2021 Berlinale, earning praise for its deadpan tone and biting satire. Utkilen has also worked in theatre and radio, and is known for challenging institutional absurdities.