Biography

Cherien Dabis (director/writer)

Named one of Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” in 2009, award-winning independent filmmaker Cherien Dabis makes her feature writing and directorial debut with Amreeka, which premiered to both audience and critical acclaim in U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.  The film went on to open the Museum of Modern Art and Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual New Director’s/New Films series in New York and will had its international premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight.

Dabis’s original script was selected to participate in the 2005 Sundance Middle East Screenwriter’s Lab, Film Independent's Director’s Lab, Los Angeles Film Festival’s Fast Track program, and 2007 Berlinale Co-Production Market.  At Tribeca All Access in 2007, Dabis was honored with the first ever L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Vision Award, and last year she won the Renew Media/Tribeca Film Institute’s Media Artist Fellowship, founded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Also a television writer and co-producer, Dabis worked on Showtime Network’s ground-breaking, original hit series The L Word for three seasons.
 
A graduate of Columbia University’s Masters of Fine Arts film program, she has written, directed, and produced several short films, which have screened at some of the world’s top film festivals.  Make A Wish (2006) premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival where it won the Prix de la Presse and Mention Spéciale du Jury.  The film went on to win top awards in Dubai, Rotterdam, Cairo, Chicago, and Aspen.  Dabis received several generous grants in support of the film, including the National Geographic’s All Roads Film Project Seed Grant, the Jerome Foundation’s New York City Media Arts Grant, and the New York State Council on the Art’s Electronic Media and Film Distribution Grant.  She is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship in Playwriting/Screenwriting from New York Foundation for the Arts.
 
As a graduate film student, Dabis was granted several distinguished awards, 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.
 
The first of her family born in the U.S., Dabis was raised in Ohio and Jordan and currently resides in New York City.