رزومه

Maryam Tafakory, born and raised in Iran, works with film and performance. She was the 2024 recipient of the Film London Jarman Award.

Her film Nazarbazi won the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary Short at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival, and the Ammodo Tiger Short at the 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Her film, Mast-del, was nominated for the Queer Palm, premiering at Cannes Directors' Fortnight, and was named among Film Comment’s Best Short Films and Sight & Sound’s Best Essay Films of 2023. Her film, Razeh-del (2024), premiered at the 77th Locarno Film Festival, where it won two awards, and has since screened at the 62nd New York Film Festival and the 68th BFI London Film Festival, winning six Academy-qualifying awards among others. Her first UK solo exhibition, I Want To Tell You What I Can't, was one of Artforum's Critics' Picks of 2023.

In 2025, Tafakory received the Locarno Residency Award for her feature film in development, Hospital of Irremediable Desires. Her film Daria’s Night Flowers (2025) has screened at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, the 63rd New York Film Festival and the 69th BFI London Film Festival, among others. Her most recent work, Ghazal-e Sorkh (2026), premiered at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, with its UK premiere at the 70th BFI London Film Festival.

Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Le Monde, and Les Cahiers du Cinéma, among others.

Teaching

  • [2025-27] MFA Senior Tutor, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University
  • [2022-24] Associate Tutor, Fine Art, Goldsmiths University of London

Education

  • [2017-2020] PhD in Fine Art [fully funded scholarship], Kingston University
  • [2015-2017] MFA, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University

Fellowships

  • [2025-2026] Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris [link]
  • [2023] MacDowell Fellowship, New Hampshire [link]

Solo Events (selective)

  • [2026] BFI London Film Festival [link]
  • [2026] Walker Art Center [link]
  • [2026] Eye Film Museum [link]
  • [2026] Project Arts Centre [link]
  • [2026] Barbican Centre, London [link]
  • [2026] SAIC, Chicago [link]
  • [2026] Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris [link]
  • [2025] Harvard Film Archive Cinema, Film Study Centre
  • [2025] Videoex, Zürich
  • [2025] 47th Cinéma du réel, Paris [link]
  • [2025] Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
  • [2024] MoMA, New York [link]
  • [2024] Academy Museum, Los Angeles [link]
  • [2024] BOZAR, Brussels
  • [2024] Batalha Centro de Cinema
  • [2024] State of Concept Athens
  • [2024] Images Festival, Toronto
  • [2023] National Gallery of Art, Washington
  • [2023] MoMI, New York
  • [2023] LUX, London
  • [2023] 42nd IKSV, Istanbul
  • [2023] e-flux, New York
  • [2023] Doc's Kingdom Seminar
  • [2023] Nadežda Petrović Gallery
  • [2023] Jester, Genk
  • [2023] Courtisane, Ghent
  • [2023] BMFA, Berwick Upon Tweed
  • [2023] Filmoteca de Catalunya la Inesperada, Barcelona
  • [2022] e-flux, New York
  • [2022] Open City Doc Festival, London
  • [2022] 41st Uppsala Short Film Festival
  • [2022] Spectacle Theatre, New York
  • [2022] Points North Institute, CIFF, Maine
  • [2022] DokuFest, Kosovo
  • [2018] BEURSSCHOUWBURG, Belgium

Awards / Nominations (selective)

  • [2025] Awarded Moving Image Arts ​Prize, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin
  • [2025] Awarded the Oscar-qualifying Best Documentary Short at 73rd Melbourne Int’l Film Festival
  • [2025] Awarded the Grand Prize, Flash Competition at FID Marseille
  • [2025] Awarded the Oscar-qualifying Ken Burns Award at the 63rd Ann Arbor Film Festival
  • [2025] Awarded the Bill Douglas Prize at the 18th Glasgow Short Film Festival
  • [2025] Awarded the International Fugas Award, DocumentaMadrid
  • [2025] Awarded the Best Experimental Film at Curtas Vila do Conde
  • [2024] Awarded the Film London Jarman Award, UK
  • [2024] Awarded the Aesthetica Art Prize
  • [2024] Awarded the Cinema & Gioventù Award for Best International Film at the 77th Locarno Film Festival
  • [2024] Awarded the Best International Short & medium-length Award at the 27th RIDM, Montreal
  • [2023] Awarded two Best Experimental Short Film - 70th & 71st Melbourne Int'l Film Festival, MIFF
  • [2023] Nominated for the Queer Palm at Cannes Directors' Fortnight
  • [2023] Nominated for the Œil d'Or at Cannes Directors' Fortnight
  • [2023] Awarded the Jury Prize for The Best Short Film - 43rd Amiens International Film Festival
  • [2022] Awarded the Oscar-qualifying Gold Hugo for Best Documentary - 58th Chicago Int'l Festival
  • [2022] Awarded the Ammodo Tiger Short - 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam, IFFR
  • [2022] Awarded the Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award - 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival, AAFF
  • [2022] Awarded the Best Int'l Short Film - 29th l'Alternativa Cinema Independent de Barcelona
  • [2022] Awarded the Best Visual Concept - 12th Bucharest Int'l Experimental Film Festival
  • [2022] Awarded two Best Short Film - 15th and 16th Archivio Aperto, Bologna, Italy
  • [2022] Awarded the runner-up Prize for the Best UK Short Film - London Short Film Festival, LSFF
  • [2019] Awarded the Aesthetica Emerging Art Prize, UK
  • [2019] Awarded the Flaherty/Colgate Distinguished Global Filmmaker in Residence, New York
  • [2018] Awarded the Fugas Jury Award at Documenta Madrid
  • [2017] Awarded the Aesthetica Emerging Art Prize, UK

Group Exhibition (selective)

  • [2024] Nottingham Contemporary, UK
  • [2023] P O R T I K U S, Frankfurt [link]
  • [2023] Villa Medici: The French Academy in Rome
  • [2023] Tromsø Kunstforening
  • [2023] The Hepworth Wakefield, UK
  • [2022] Haus der Kulturen der Welt [HKW]
  • [2022] LCCA the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art [Survival Kit]
  • [2021] Project Arts Centre, Dublin
  • [2021] M HKA, Antwerp
  • [2021] Pergamon Museum, Berlin
  • [2019] Anthology Film Archive, New York
  • [2019] VIDEONALE.17, Kunstmuseum Bonn
  • [2019] Whitechapel Gallery, London
  • [2019] Parasol unit Foundation for Contemporary art, London

Group Screening (selective)

  • [2025] Tate Britain, London
  • [2024] Tate Modern, London
  • [2024] 62nd New York Film Festival, NYFF
  • [2024] 77th Locarno Film Festival, Pardi di Domani [link]
  • [2024] BFI London Film Festival
  • [2023] Cannes Directors' Fortnight [link]
  • [2023] 61st New York Film Festival, NYFF
  • [2023] 48th Toronto Film Festival, Wavelengths, TIFF
  • [2023] 42nd Vancouver Int'l FF
  • [2023] Locarno Film Festival
  • [2023] 68th Cork International Film Festival
  • [2023] International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam [IDFA]
  • [2023] M+ Cinema, M Plus Museum, Hong Kong
  • [2023] Black Canvas FCC, New Horizon Competition
  • [2023] FICUNAM International Festival
  • [2023] DMZ International Documentary Film Festival [DMZ Docs]
  • [2023] 50th Film Fest Ghent
  • [2023] Oberhausen International Short Film Festival
  • [2022] True/False Film Festival
  • [2022] MoMA Doc Fortnight New York
  • [2022] Rotterdam Int'l Film Festival [IFFR 2016/2018/2022]
  • [2022] RIDM - Montreal International Documentary Festival [2022/2023]
  • [2022] 38th Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg
  • [2022] Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin
  • [2022] Frames of Representation, ICA London
  • [2022] 29th Encounters Film Festival, UK [2023/2023]
  • [2022] Nominated for Experimental Award - 30th Curtas Vila do Conde IFF
  • [2022] 39th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival [2022/2023]
  • [2021] Special Jury Mention at IFF Message to Man
  • [2021] Essay Film Festival, Birkbeck London
  • [2021] 31st Singapore International Film Festival [SGIFF]
  • [2020] 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Michigan
  • [2019] Special Jury Mention at Open City Documentary Festival, London
  • [2019] Special Jury Mention at 47th Athens International Film and Video Festival
  • [2019] Nominated for Int. Award at 22nd Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Switzerland
  • [2019] 60th Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival [ZINEBI]
  • [2019] 38th Uppsala International Short Film Festival
  • [2019] 35th Busan International Short Film Festival
  • [2019] 17th Doclisboa Documentary Film Festival
  • [2019] UnionDocs, Centre for Documentary Art, NY
  • [2019] B3 Biennial of the Moving Image
  • [2018] Nominated for Found Footage Award at 47th IFFR
  • [2018] Nominated for Tiger Short Award at 47th IFFR
  • [2018] Nominated for Experimental Award at 67th Melbourne International Film Festival
  • [2018] Duke University, Rubenstein Art Center, Durham
  • [2018] Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University
  • [2018] Light Industry, New York
  • [2015] Zurich Film Festival, Zürich