Mounia Akl

Why you should listen

Mounia Akl is an award-winning Lebanese filmmaker. Her short film Submarine (2016) was in the official selection of the 69th Cannes Film Festival (Cinéfondation), SXSW, TIFF and Dubai Film Festival, where it won the Muhr Jury Prize. In 2017, Akl took part in the Lebanon Factory with a codirected short film El Gran Libano, which opened Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Akl's first feature film, Costa Brava, Lebanon, was developed during the Cannes' Cinéfondation Residency and the Sundance Institute Labs. The film was shot in the aftermath of the August 4th explosion in Beirut and explores our relationship to home in a world that can feel toxic and unsafe. It premiered in the official selection of the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI London film Festival, amongst others. Among the prizes it has won are the Netpac Award in TIFF, the Jury Prize in Sevilla and Gouna, and the audience award in BFI. Akl holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from ALBA and an MFA in directing from Columbia University. She has taught film directing and actor directing at the NHSI Film Summer Institute at Northwestern University, Chicago. She is currently developing new projects in TV and film between Beirut, London and Los Angeles.