Tamer Ashry

Tamer Ashry’s love for visual art and storytelling drew him to filmmaking early in life. For twenty years now, he has been working as a director, and scriptwriter in fiction films, documentaries and television in the Middle East. Ashry’s personal experiences, originality, audacious freedom and intense curiosity about the lives of others is what inspires his work. Drawing from his own experience and the lives he observed, he went on to direct his first narrative feature film ‘Photocopy’ based on an elderly man’s re-discovery of life. The film has made the rounds at international festivals where it received numerous awards, among which are; Best Arab Feature at El Gouna Film Festival, Best Feature at Tripoli - Lebanon, and the Audience Award for Best Film at Malmö Arab Film Festival. Following the success of ‘Photocopy’, Ashry’s second film is ‘Eyebrows’, a short film that follows two niqabi clad women throughout their day in a shopping mall. It has also won Best Arab Short at El Gouna Film Festival (GFF). Ashry also served as a producer in a number of other films. In 2015, he worked as a line producer in a feature fiction film called ‘Nawara’ starring Menna Shalabi and directed by Hala Khalil. Nawara has won Best Actress in Dubai International film festival. Tamer also directed and produced work for Emmy and Oscar-winning filmmakers Gini Reticker, and Thomas Lennon.