Marwa Zein
Sudan - Germany
Film Director, Script Writer, and Art Lecturer
Cinema, Cultural Management, Education
Marwa Zein is an award-winning film director, scriptwriter, and producer, best known for her acclaimed debut Khartoum Offside (2019) and short fiction films A Game (2009) and One Week, Two Days (2016). Her films have been premiered and screened at prestigious festivals, including Berlinale, Toronto, Cph Dox, Sheffield, Visions du reel, BOZAR, JCC, IDFA, and others. Khartoum Offside won the 15th Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Film and the TV5Monde Award for Best First Work, among more than 35 national and international honors. Marwa earned her BA in Film from the Academy of Arts in Cairo, Egypt (2009) and her MA in Film from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany (2021). Currently, she is developing two feature films: the documentary Playing with Fire and Ice and the fiction film Lily's Mecca, supported by the Göteborg Film Festival, Red Sea Film Festival (2022), and AFAC (2023). Since 2021, Marwa has also been a freelance film lecturer at Catalyst and the SRH Film School in Berlin. She lives between Germany, Sudan, and Egypt.

Marwa Zein
Sudan - Germany
Film Director, Script Writer, and Art Lecturer
Cinema, Cultural Management, Education
Marwa Zein is an award-winning film director, scriptwriter, and producer, best known for her acclaimed debut Khartoum Offside (2019) and short fiction films A Game (2009) and One Week, Two Days (2016). Her films have been premiered and screened at prestigious festivals, including Berlinale, Toronto, Cph Dox, Sheffield, Visions du reel, BOZAR, JCC, IDFA, and others. Khartoum Offside won the 15th Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Film and the TV5Monde Award for Best First Work, among more than 35 national and international honors. Marwa earned her BA in Film from the Academy of Arts in Cairo, Egypt (2009) and her MA in Film from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany (2021). Currently, she is developing two feature films: the documentary Playing with Fire and Ice and the fiction film Lily's Mecca, supported by the Göteborg Film Festival, Red Sea Film Festival (2022), and AFAC (2023). Since 2021, Marwa has also been a freelance film lecturer at Catalyst and the SRH Film School in Berlin. She lives between Germany, Sudan, and Egypt.

Juror

Production Awards
2021

Grantee

Production Awards
2011
A Lake the Size of a Papaya
A short film based on the short story “A Lake the Size of a Papaya” by Sudanese writer Estella Gaytanou, who worked with the screenwriter on a script that brings to life southern Sudan through the story of a young girl and her grandmother. The film examines the meaning of family, memory, love, and the enduring scars of imperialism that continue to affect the people of south Sudan.