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Cyril Aris is a Lebanese director and screenwriter, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
His fiction feature, A Sad and Beautiful World (2025), premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Giornate degli Autori competition, where it won the Audience Award, and will next screen at the BFI London Film Festival, among others.
His documentary Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (2023), supported by the Sundance Institute, premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary, receiving a jury special mention before touring more than 80 festivals worldwide, including BFI London, CPH:DOX, and DOC NYC, winning awards in Rotterdam, Valencia, Rome, San Francisco, Marseille, and beyond. His debut, The Swing (2018), also premiered at Karlovy Vary and won multiple awards internationally.
A Columbia University MFA graduate, Aris also works as an editor, with credits including Costa Brava, Lebanon (Venice Orizzonti, 2021).
Credits
Credits
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DateProduction (role)CompanyProject details
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Date: 2025Production (role): A Sad and Beautiful WorldCompany: Abbout Productions (Lebanon) / Diversity Hire (USA)Project details: Director & Writer
Lebanese candidate for Best International Feature Film in the 98th Academy Awards
Premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival in the Giornate Degli Autori competition, and it won the Audience Award
Official selection of the BFI London Film Festival
Official selection of the Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) -
Date: 2023Production (role): Dancing on the Edge of a VolcanoCompany: Abbout Productions (Lebanon)Project details: Documentary
Special Jury Mention at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2023
Audience Award at the Mostra de Valencia, Spain, 2023
Audience Award at the Festival Dei Popoli, Italy, 2023
Best Film Award at the MedFilm Festival, Italy 2023
Piuculture Award for Best Film at the MedFilm Festival, Italy 2023
University Jury Award for Best Film at the MedFilm Festival, Italy 2023
Special Jury Mention at the Cinemed Film Festival, France, 2023
Main Prize (Viewfinder competition) at the Verzio International Human Rights Documentary FF, Hungary 2023
Jury Prize at the DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival, Azerbaijan, 2023 -
Date: 2018Production (role): The SwingCompany:Project details: Documentary
53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic 2018 | World Premiere
El-Gouna Bronze Star Award at the 2nd El Gouna Film Festival, Egypt 2018
Honorable Mention at the 8th Open City Documentary Festival in London for "its impeccable judged framing and profoundly touching meditation on mortality and morality", UK 2018
Jury Prize at the 24th Medfilm Festival in Rome, Italy 2018: "Director Cyril Aris delivers a painful and heartbreaking movie filming the silences, the unsaid and the grandparents' love, while reflecting on aging and death. The human condition is examined in a sweet way within a few rooms, and from a balcony overlooking Beirut."
Jury Prize at the 2nd Manarat Film Festival, Tunisia - "It is a film about the last days of a couple, a story about death and love, about old age and memory. It triggers strong emotions and destabilizes with its ambiguity. It challenges us with questions of divergent answers. Eventually, we congratulate this film for the beautiful love story it depicts"
Special Mention at the 5th Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary 2019
Recipient of the AFAC Documentary Grant
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DateProduction (role)CompanyProject details
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Date: 2020Production (role): Beating HeartsCompany: BBCProject details:
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Date: 2017Production (role): The President's VisitCompany: IndieFlipProject details: 42nd Toronto International Film Festival, Canada 2017 | World Premiere
Grand Jury Prize, Nashville Film Festival, USA 2018 - Oscar qualifying award for the Oscars of 2019
BAFTA student award - shortlist, UK 2018
Muhr Short Film Jury Prize, Dubai International Film Festival, UAE 2017
National Board of Review (NBR) Award, USA 2017
Best Directing Award, Elia Short Film Festival, Palestine 2018
Recipient of the Doha Film Institute Production Grant, Qatar 2017
Recipient of the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Production Grant, USA 2017
Recipient of a grant from the Ministry of Culture in Lebanon, Lebanon 2017
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DateProduction (role)CompanyProject details
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Date: 2021Production (role): Costa Brava LebanonCompany: Abbout ProductionsProject details: Editor
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Date: 2016Production (role): SUBMARINE (Short)Company:Project details: Producer