Sahim Omar Kalifa

Sahim Omar Kalifa (born 1980 Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan) is a Belgian-Kurdish filmmaker based in Belgium. In 2001, he came to Belgium, and in 2008 he got his Master's degree in filmmaking at Sint-Lukas Film School, Brussels. With his short film Nan, Kalifa won the Best Flemish Student Film at the Leuven International Short Film Festival. Kalifa has won 96 international awards with his short films Land of the Heroes, Baghdad Messi, and Bad Hunter. The biggest achievements so far are: - Jury Prize as Best Short film for ‘Land of the heroes’ at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival – Generation [1] - ‘Baghdad Messi’ was shortlisted for the 87th Academy awards, the Oscars. It was one of the 10 finalists [2] - ‘Bad Hunter’ was also shortlisted for the 88th Academy awards, the Oscars [3] Bad Hunter won the Jury Prize in the Muhr Short Film Competition at the 2014 Dubai International Film Festival. The most prestige Award was at 61st BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL with ‘Land Of The Heroes’ as Jury Award - Best Short Film ‘Generation’. ‘ ‘Baghdad Messi’ won 59 international Awards and it is shortlisted for‘Bad Hunter’ won also several international Awards at some important film festivals, like Jury Award at 59th Valladolid, 38th Montreal World, Dubai IFF and Flickerfest International Film Festival. 2014, Sahim was chosen in Istanbul as Best Kurdish film director. In 2016 Sahim became a member of the Academy Awards ‘The Oscars’. He can vote for the Oscar awards [4] Summer 2016, Sahim had filmed his debut film ‘Zagros’ which was been supported by Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), Dutch Film Fund and Eurimages [5].