Cherien Dabis born to Palestinian immigrant parents, award-winning independent filmmaker and television writer Cherien Dabis has been recognised by the industry’s top organisations and trade publications, including the Sundance Institute, IFP and Filmmaker Magazine. A 2004 graduate of Columbia University’s Masters of Fine Arts Film program, Dabis’ short films have screened at some of the world’s top film festivals

Dabis is an accomplished Staff Writer and Co-Producer on Showtime Network’s original hit series The L Word. As a feature film screenwriter, she has been awarded several distinguished awards in support of her screenplays, including the Zaki Gordon Award for Excellence in Screenwriting, the Institute for Humane Studies Film and Fiction Scholarship, and the New York Women in Film and Television Scholarship.

In 2003, Dabis was awarded a Screenwriting Grant from the Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up (Power Up) for her short screenplay Little Black Boot. Premiering at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, the film went on to win several Best Short Film awards and was a Grand Prize Winner of the 2004 PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards. Dabis is also a recipient of the Power Up Filmmaker’s Fund for her short Memoirs of an Evil Stepmother. Her short film-writing debut, Nadah, premiered at the 2003 Rotterdam International Film Festival and was nominated for the VC Film Festival’s Golden Reel Award. Her production credits include Jane Campion’s psychological thriller In the Cut and NBC’s critically acclaimed television series The West Wing.

Dabis was invited to participate in the Sundance Institute’s 2005 Middle East Screenwriter’s Lab, 2006 Cannes Film Festival’s Mediterranean Films Crossing Borders program and 2007 Berlinale Co-Production Market. An alumnus of Film Independent’s 2005 Director’s Lab, Project Involve Mentorship Program and Los Angeles Film Festival’s Fast Track Program, Dabis also received a 2006 Artist Fellowship in Screenwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts in support of her screenplay. She is currently working on her feature film writing and directing debut, Amreeka.

Director MAKE A WISH / Itmanna