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Belgian-Kurdish filmmaker, born 1980 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sahim Omar Kalifa (born 1980 in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan) is a Belgian-Kurdish filmmaker based in Belgium.[1]
 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Dutch. (February 2018) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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In 2001, he came to Belgium, and in 2008 he got his Master's degree in filmmaking at Sint-Lukas Film School, Brussels. With his short film Nan, Kalifa won the Best Flemish Student Film at the Leuven International Short Film Festival.[2]
Kalifa has won more than 100 international awards for his short films Land of the Heroes, Baghdad Messi, and Bad Hunter.
The biggest achievements so far are:
A-Jury Prize as Best Short film for ‘Land of the heroes’ at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.
B- ‘Baghdad Messi’ was shortlisted for the 87th Academy Awards, better known as The Oscars. It was one of the 10 finalists.[3]
C- ‘Bad Hunter’ was also shortlisted for the 88th Academy Awards.[4]
D- ZAGROS ‘Feature Film’: Winner of The Grand Prix For BEST FILM at 44th Ghent Film Festival. Audience Award for Best Film at 18th Arras Film Festival – France. Best Director at 18th Arras Film Festival – France. Audience Award for Best Film at 35th Annonay Film Festival – France. 47th Rotterdam International Film Festival – Official selection. 72nd Edinburgh Film Festival – Official Selection - UK. 35th Munich Film Festival – Official Selection. 42nd Montreal World Film Festival - Canada.
Bad Hunter won the Jury Prize in the Muhr Short Film Competition at the 2014 Dubai International Film Festival.[5]
‘Bad Hunter’ won also several international Awards at some important film festivals, like Jury Award at 59th Valladolid, 38th Montreal World, Dubai IFF and Flickerfest International Film Festival.
2014, Sahim was chosen in Istanbul as Best Kurdish film director.
In 2016 Sahim was invited to be one of the more than 6,000 voting members of the Academy Awards.[6] In 2017 his Documentary Film ‘Cornered in Molenbeek’ has won Best Belgian Documentary TV Series at Docville Documentary Film Festival. And also selected for Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival – Official competition
In May 2016, Sahim started filming his first feature film Zagros, supported by Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), Dutch Film Fund and Eurimages.[7]
His documentary film Iraq's Invisible Beauty tells the story of the late Iraqi photographer Latif al-Ani and his photographic documentation of Iraq between the 1950s and 1970s.[8]
In 2021, Sahim began filming the feature film Baghdad Messi,[9] based on his 2012 short film.[10] It had its world premiere on January 28, 2023, at the Ostend Film Festival. In August 2024, his film was selected as the Iraqi entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.[11]
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