Scandar Copti
Scandar Copti (born 1975 in Jaffa, Israel) is a Palestinian and Israeli Arab filmmaker, born and raised in Tel Aviv-Yafo.[1][2][3]
Copti was born in Jaffa, in a Christian Arab family. His mother, Mary, is an educator and school principal of the Arab - Jaffa democracy school, and his father, Ilya, is a carpenter. Kobti received his BA from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion, he studied acting and directing at the The Technion theater, played (in Arabic) in End - End directed by Ouriel Zohar in 2001 at the Technion and the festival in Jerusalem.
His first full-length feature film Ajami won the Ophir Award in Israel, the Camera d'Or Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival. His film was also nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film category and has won more than 15 awards worldwide.
Formerly a mechanical engineer, he has also written, directed and edited several fiction, documentary and experimental short films. Copti was on the jury of the Tribeca film festival as well as at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2010 and president of the Human Rights Award in the Istanbul International Film Festival 2011. Copti was part of the team that launched the Doha Tribeca Film Festival and the Doha Film Institute (DFI) and he headed the DFI's education department until November 2011. Currently Copti is developing his next feature film project.