Jaffa, Palestine | 1980-03-27

Ziad Bakri is a Palestinian actor and director. He starred in SCREWDRIVER, which enjoyed a busy festival career and was nominated for Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival, Malmo Arab Film Festival, and El Gouna Film Festival. Ziad's SCREWDRIVER won Best Film at the International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema in Montpellier (Cinemed) and the Bosphorus Film Festival. It also won Best First Work and Best Actor for Ziad's role at the Mediterranean Film Festival of Tetouan. For his role in the French-Greek film THE BLIND SUN, which screened at several prestigious international film festivals, Ziad won the Best Actor award at Fantasporto. In 2022, he starred in the Netflix film THE WEEKEND AWAY, and in 2023, he starred in the Italian film PROFETI, directed by Alessio Gremonini, who won Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes, Italy, and starring Donato Demita and Marco Horanich. Ziad recently finished shooting THE STRANGERS' CASE, directed by Brandt Anderson whose film REFUGEE won the Jury prize at the French Rivera Film Festival and starring Omar Sy (THE INTOUCHABLES), Yasmine Al Massri (CARAMEL) and Angeliki Papoulia ( THE LOBSTER). His upcoming projects also include THE SAND CASTLE, directed by Emmy-nominated director Matty Brown and starring Nadine Labaki and child Zain Al Rafeea, who collaborate for the second time after their film CAPERNAUM, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Moreover, Ziad is not only an actor but also a filmmaker. He wrote and directed the short film THE SALT FISHERMAN, which played at the Dubai International Film Festival (2011) and earned him a Best Director nomination.