2012 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund Recipient

Suha Arraf is a Palestinian-Israeli, she is a graduate of the Tel Aviv Screenwriting Academy and has degrees from the Jerusalem and Haifa Universities. Suha has written and directed several documentaries and worked as a journalist and researcher for many years.  She was inducted into the APSA Academy in 2008, when she was nominated for Best Screenplay together with Eran Riklis for Lemon Tree. She received a developement grant for her project It All Started with a Poster.

“It All Started with a Poster is an attempt to reveal our innermost truths. It’s an effort to depict a cruel reality through humor, drama, and dreams—great dreams—that have yet gone unfulfilled.”

Zeynep Özbatur Atakan is the founder of Zeyno Film, and is a film producer whose recent credits include the award-winning Once Upon a Time in Anatolia(2011), Three Monkeys (2008) and Climates (2002), all directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. She was inducted into the APSA Academy in 2008, as producer of Three Monkeys which was nominated for Best Feature Film. She is one of the recipients of the development grant for her project The Wild Pear Tree, which had its World Premiere in Official Competition at the 71st Cannes Film Festival 2018.

“The Wild Pear Tree is the story of an aspiring writer who returns to his village with the aim of realising his ambition but who finds his father’s debts becoming an obstacle.”

Mohammad Rasoulof is an Iranian independent filmmaker, in 2017 his film A Man of Integrity won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.  He was inducted into the APSA Academy after being nominated for Achievement in Directing in the 2011 APSAs for his film, Goodbye, which was also nominated for Best Feature Film. He received one of the development grants through his project Amnesia. 

“A complex and penetrating drama about two brothers named Makan and Mahan who find themselves in opposing camps due to their differing political and ideological convictions.”

Kath Shelper is the producer of a number of award-winning films most noticeably, Samson & Delilah, which won the prestigious Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. The same year she was inducted to the APSA Academy when the film also won an APSA for Best Feature Film.  She received a development grant for her project The Guardians. 

“Set in the desert township of Alice Springs, The Guardians tells the story of two young men responsible for the safety of a group of Aboriginal children who must protect them, not only from the harsh realities of life, but also from something more sinister.”

Kath Shelper has now handed over the project to writer/director Beck Cole.