Born in Iraqi Kurdistan, Shawkat Amin Korki and his family fled from military oppression and lived in exile in Iran for 25 years. Korki wrote, directed and produced his first two features in Iraqi Kurdistan, Crossing The Dust (2006) and Kick Off (2009), which won the Busan International Film Festival New Currents Award and FIPRESCI Prize. Memories on Stone (2014) won Best Film from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Korki lives and works in Erbil.
Award-winning writer and producer Mehmet Aktaş is the founder of independent production and distribution company Mitos Film. As a producer, Aktaş has worked with leading Kurdish directors including Hiner Saleem and Bahman Ghobadi. 2014’s Memories on Stone and Letter to the King, which won him Best Screenplay at Norway’s Amanda Awards, are his first two screenwriting credits.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
