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Born in Kurdistan and based in Norway, Hisham Zaman is a multi-award-winning director whose films\u2014including Bawke, Letter to the King, and Winterland\u2014grapple with exile, longing, and intergenerational trauma. His feature A Happy Day premiered at Berlinale 2023. Zaman\u2019s style is visually poetic and emotionally raw.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Gunhild Westhagen Magnor<\/h3>\n Norway<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Irasj Asanti<\/h3>\n Norway \/ Iran<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Lisa Cole<\/h3>\n United States<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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An Emmy-nominated director and Sundance Fellow, Lisa Cole\u2019s work interrogates borders with fierce compassion. Bienvenidos a Los \u00c1ngeles draws from her personal encounters with immigration enforcement. Cole also co-wrote The Girl from Nagasaki and frequently collaborates with human rights organizations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Leiv Igor Devold<\/h3>\n Norway<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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\u2019s queer love story in rural Norway. He teaches at the Norwegian Film School and holds a PhD in film aesthetics.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Harald Flem<\/h3>\n Norway<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Armita Keyani<\/h3>\n Norway<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Jean Liu<\/h3>\n United States<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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\u2019s \u201cShouts & Murmurs\u201d section.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Errol Morris<\/h3>\n United States<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Errol Morris is a towering figure in documentary cinema. Known for The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War\u2014which earned him an Oscar\u2014his 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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Ibrahim Mursal Warsame <\/h3>\n Norway \/ Somalia<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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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\u2014including the doc The Art of Sin and the short African Family\u2014has been featured at IDFA and Sheffield DocFest. He speaks openly about intersectionality and diaspora narratives.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Sara Margrethe Oskal<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n Norway \/ S\u00e1pmi<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Oskal is a S\u00e1mi 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.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Sam & David Cutler-Kreutz<\/h3>\n United States<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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