— DIRECTORS’ TALKS
DIRECTORS’ TALK: HASAN HADI & RAKAN MAYASI
Moderated by Delphine Jeanneret
TUESDAY 19 MAY – 14:00
📍 PALAIS STAGE
Fresh off his Caméra d’Or win at the 2025 Festival de Cannes with his feature debut THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE, writer/director Hasan Hadi is back in Cannes to discuss his journey as a filmmaker from growing up in Iraq, studying then teaching in New York until the premiere of his first feature at the Directors’ Fortnight. Joining him on stage is Palestinian writer/director Rakan Mayasi who is debuting his first feature YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP at the 2026 Festival de Cannes in Un Certain Regard. On the eve of the premiere, Mayasi will also conjointly share his experiences, and how the robust filmography he built in shorts led him to this stage in his career.
Hasan Hadi
Director, Screenwriter
Hasan Hadi is an Iraqi writer/director. He grew up in southern Iraq, during wartime, and over the years worked in journalism, production, and as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Graduate Film Program. He received the Gotham-Marcie Bloom Fellowship, the Black Family Production Prize and the Sloan Foundation Production Award. He is 2026 DGA nominee, 2022 Sundance Lab Fellow and the recipient of the Sundance/NHK Award, SFFILM Rainin Grant, and Doha Film Institute Grant. His feature debut, THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE, is the first Iraqi film to be Oscar shortlisted and win at Cannes, both Camera d’Or and the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award.
Rakan Mayasi
Director, Screenwriter, Producer
Rakan Mayasi is an independent filmmaker from Palestine, born in Germany and currently based in Brussels. He studied Cinema and Psychology in Lebanon and then received film training with Abbas Kiarostami in South Korea at the Asian Film Academy. He has an MA in Filmmaking from LUCA School of Arts in Belgium. He has made several short films: ROUBAMA, which premiered at Locarno Film Festival in 2012; BONBONÉ which premiered at TIFF in 2017 and is the recipient of 35 Best Short Awards; TRUMPETS IN THE SKY which won honorable mention for Best International Short Film at TIFF 2021; and THE KEY which premiered at SXSW. Rakan just wrapped his first feature film YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP. Shot entirely with non-professional actors and without a script, the film makes its debut at the 2026 Festival de Cannes, in Un Certain Regard.
