DIRECTORS

Born in Tehran, Gharavi is a BAFTA/Sundance-nominated director known for delivering authentic stories lensed with an impeccably wrought perspective. Trained as a painter in the US and later in cinema in France, she has created films on subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali and teenage sexuality to refugees, death row exonerees, to Virginia Woolf. Her first short, Closer, premiered at Sundance, where it was praised for advancing documentary form. Mother/Country, chronicling her return to Iran after 23 years, aired on Channel 4 to critical acclaim, while works such as The King of South Shields and People Like Us continue her exploration of outsiders and power.

Her debut feature, I Am Nasrine, was BAFTA-nominated and won Best Screenplay at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Recent projects include African Queens: The Life of Cleopatra for Netflix and her upcoming feature Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day (2026). Her next feature, Forough: Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season will be executive produced by Wes Anderson and concerns the life of an Iranian poet from the 1950s/60s. An MIT Fellow and BAFTA member, she teaches internationally and divides her time between Newcastle and Paris.