Elia Suleiman

Born in 1960 in Nazareth, Elia Suleiman lived in New York from 1981 to 1993. While in the United States, he directed his first two short films INTRODUCTION TO THE END OF AN ARGUMENT and HOMAGE BY ASSASSINATION, winning numerous awards. In 1994, he settled down in Jerusalem, where the European Commission had entrusted him with the mission of creating a Film and Media Department at Birzeit University.

His first feature film CHRONICLE OF DISAPPEARANCE won the Best First Film Prize at the 1996 Venice Film Festival.

In 2002, DIVINE INTERVENTION won the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize of the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Best Foreign Film Prize at the European Awards in Rome.

In 2007, he was chosen as one of the 35 directors of TO EACH HIS OWN CINEMA, a collective film for the Cannes Film Festival 60th anniversary. His feature film THE TIME THAT REMAINS was in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. In 2012, he completed a short film titled DIARY OF A BEGINNER, part of a collective feature titled 7 DAYS IN HAVANA. The film was in the official selection Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

His last feature film titled IT MUST BE HEAVAN won the Jury Special Mention in Cannes in 2019, and the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize of the Cannes Film Festival.

Elia Suleiman has participated in numerous Festivals as a Jury member including the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. Elia Suleiman is the recipient of numerous tributes amongst which is the Prince Claus in 2008. He was named Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in 2020.

Elia Suleiman is the recipient of the European Achievement in World Cinema in 2022, and an Honorary Doctorate from UCLouvain in Belgium in February 2023.

Elia Suleiman is currently serving as an artistic advisor for the Doha Film Institute.