Ariel Nasr

Ariel Nasr is a Canadian documentary film director.[1] He is most noted as director of the films The Boxing Girls of Kabul, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards in 2013,[2] and The Forbidden Reel, which was a winner of the Audience Award at the 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival,[3] and as producer of Buzkashi Boys, which was an Academy Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Film at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013.[4]

Nasr was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and educated at the University of King's College.[1] Of Afghan descent, he has cited the War in Afghanistan as an important formative influence on his work, and concentrates primarily on films about the culture of Afghanistan and Afghan immigrants to Canada.[5]

His other films have included Good Morning Kandahar (2008),[5] The Long Way Home (2017) and The Mosque: A Community's Struggle (2020), a film about the Quebec City mosque shooting of 2017.[6]

In 2024 he won the TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award for his feature film screenplay Daudistan.[7]

  1. ^ a b "Halifax-born producer gets Oscar nod for short film". CBC News Nova Scotia, January 10, 2013.
  2. ^ Scott Stinson, "Growing pains for new Canadian Screen Awards; Quebec film Rebelle takes home 10 statuettes Sunday evening". Edmonton Journal, March 4, 2013.
  3. ^ Lauren Malyk, "Hot Docs names $50K Audience Award winners". Playback, June 8, 2020.
  4. ^ "Two Canadians up for Oscars for best live-action short". Canadian Press, January 10, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Alison Auld, "Behind enemy lines; Film explores conflicting emotions of being Afghan-Canadian". Kamloops Daily News, September 20, 2008.
  6. ^ Raquel Fletcher, "New documentary premieres on 3rd anniversary of Quebec City mosque shooting". Global News, January 28, 2020.
  7. ^ Kelly Townsend, "In Brief: Ariel Nasr wins 2024 TIFF-CBC Films Screenwriter Award". Playback, April 22, 2024.