Mounia AKL (EL)

Mounia Akl is a Lebanese director and screenwriter living between Beirut and New York where she co-founded the collective Breaking Wave Pictures. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from ALBA and a Directing MFA from Columbia University. Apart from directing, Mounia has taught film directing at the NHSI at Northwestern University in Chicago and was a preceptor in Screenwriting at Columbia University in New York where she was also Richard Peña’s teaching assistant. Her short film, Submarine, was in the official selection of the 69^th Cannes Film Festival, South By Southwest, Toronto International Film Festival and Dubai International Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. Submarine was also shortlisted for the Student Baftas and was awarded the Kodak Motion Picture Grant. In 2016, Mounia was spotlighted by Screen International as one of the 5 Arab Stars of Tomorrow. In 2017 she was one of the four Lebanese directors selected to represent Lebanon at the 70th Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight as part of Lebanon Factory. She co-wrote and co-directed El Gran Libano with Costa Rican director Neto Villalobos. The film opened the Director’s Fortnight, screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival and will screen at the BFI. She is currently writing her first feature film, Costa Brava, with Spanish Co-writer Clara Roquet produced by Abbout Productions (Lebanon).

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