Hany Abu-Assad

Hany Abu‑Assad (Arabic: هاني أبو أسعد) is an Israeli‑Dutch film director and screenwriter of Palestinian origin who has become one of the most internationally recognized voices from the Middle East. Born on 11 October 1961 in Nazareth, Israel, he grew up in a Palestinian family before emigrating to the Netherlands in 1981, where he studied aerodynamics in Haarlem and worked as an airplane engineer. The shift from engineering to cinema was sparked after he saw a film by Michel Khleifi, inspiring him to pursue storytelling through moving images. He began his career producing television content for Channel 4 and the BBC, and in 1990 co‑founded Ayloul Film Productions with fellow Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, laying the groundwork for his future narrative‑driven works.  In 1992 he wrote and directed his first short, Paper House, a project for Dutch television that garnered awards in Paris and Jerusalem and announced his arrival on the festival circuit.  His first feature, Het 14de kippetje (The Fourteenth Chick, 1998), demonstrated his ability to blend humor with social critique, while subsequent documentaries such as Nazareth 2000 (2000) and the film Rana’s Wedding (2002) deepened his exploration of Palestinian identity and diaspora.  The breakthrough came with Paradise Now (2005), a tense drama about two men recruited for a suicide attack; the film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and earned Abu‑Assad his first Academy Award nomination, highlighting his deft handling of politically charged material.  In 2013 his thriller Omar received the Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and secured a second Oscar nomination, cementing his reputation as a master of suspense and human drama.  Beyond directing, Abu‑Assad has contributed to the broader film community, joining the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2014 and serving on juries such as ShortCutz Amsterdam in 2018.  His career, spanning over three decades, reflects a persistent commitment to telling stories that bridge cultural divides while confronting the complexities of conflict, displacement, and hope.