Haifaa Al Mansour

Haifaa Al Mansour ( b. 1974 ) is a Saudi Arabian director, screenwriter and filmmaker.

The lawyer's daughter Al Mansour was born in the conservative Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the eighth of twelve siblings and raised in a small town in a family environment on having access to journals, books, novels. Later she studied at the American University in Cairo English Literature and after her marriage in 2007 to a film school in Sydney to make there their master's degree.

After her studies, she turned first three short films and a documentary. The German - Saudi co-production The Girl Wadjda (2012 ) is her first feature film and is considered the first fully filmed in Saudi Arabia movie ever. At the locations outside the studios, and they had their instructions from a minibus issue by walkie- talkie.

Haifaa Al Mansour now lives with her two children and her husband, a U.S. diplomat in Bahrain.

Awards

For The Girl Wadjda:

• Special Prize of the Peace Prize of the German Cinema - The Bridge 2013 ( Director )
• Fritz Gerlich Award 2013

Filmography

• 2012 - The girl Wadjda
• 2005 - Women Without Shadows ( Documentary )