Mounia Akl

About

Mounia Akl is an award-winning Lebanese filmmaker living between Beirut and New York. Her short film, SUBMARINE (2016), was in the official selection of the 69th Cannes Film Festival (Cinefondation), SXSW, TIFF and Dubai International Film Festival where it won the Muhr Jury Prize. In 2017, Mounia took part in the LEBANON FACTORY and co-directed a short film EL GRAN LIBANO which opened Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and screened at Sarajevo Film Festival and BFI London among others. Mounia Akl recently completed the Cannes Film Festival’s Cinéfondation Residency in Paris with her first feature, COSTA BRAVA LEBANON. The project was also selected to participate in Torino Film Lab Feature Lab and in the Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Lab. Mounia also regularly makes Fashion/Architecture/Brand Films, between Lebanon, New York and Paris where she is represented by WOMANRAY. Notably, she directed FORBIDDEN LOVE, an episode of Do Not Disturb Series, produced by Pulse Films and Jude Law, for Blackpills; and collaborated with designer Sandra Mansour on the fashion film 11 MINUTES, which was released exclusively on Vogue then Staff Picked by Vimeo. Mounia holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from ALBA and an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. Mounia has taught film directing at the NHSI film summer institute at Northwestern University, Chicago.