سمیرا مخملباف

Born 1980 in Tehran, Iran, Samira Makhmalbaf started acting at the age of eight in "The Cyclist" directed by her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf the famed Iranian filmmaker. She directed her first feature at 17, titled "The Apple" and become the youngest director participating in the official section of the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. She was praised by the legendary Jean-Luc Godard for her film. The Apple was invited to more than 100 international film festivals in a period of two years and screened in more than 30 countries.

In 1999, Samira made her second feature film titled “The Blackboard” in Kurdistan of Iran, and for the second time was selected by the Cannes Film Festival to compete in the official section in 2000. She was granted the Special Jury Award. The Blackboard received many international awards including the “Federico Fellini Honor Award” from UNESCO and “Francois Truffaut Award” from Italy. The film was widely released across the world and more than two hundred thousand people watched the film in France alone.

Samira alongside other prominent director like Ken Loach, Shohei Imamura, Youssef Chahine, Sean Penn, made one of the 11 episodes of the film “September 11”. The film was premiered at Venice International Film Festival in 2002.

The third feature by Samira Makhmalbaf titled “At Five in the Afternoon”, was the first feature film shot in Afghanistan post Taliban. The film was selected for the competition section of Cannes Film Festival in 2003, receiving the Jury’s Special Award for the second time.

In 2004, she was selected as one of forty best directors of the world by Guardian newspaper.

Since the Iranian Government did not give her the permission to film in Iran, in 2007 Samira Makhmalbaf shot her last film Two-Legged Horse in Afghanistan. The filming was disturbed by a terrorist bomb explosion on the scene which resulted in severe injuries to 6 people, but Samira did not leave Afghanistan until she finished her film.

Samira Makhmalbaf has also participated as jury member in reputable film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Moscow, Montreal, ...