British/Canadian writer and director SHAMIM SARIF is an equally successful novelist (the Pendleton May First Novel Award, Betty Trask Award), screenwriter, and feature film director.
Shamim recently completed the film, Despite the Falling Snow, an epic story of love and betrayal in cold war Russia based on her second novel, published by Hodder Headline and St. Martin’s Press to universal acclaim.
Her first feature film I Can’t Think Straight won 11 awards and her follow up movie The World Unseen had its debut at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival before going on to garner 23 awards internationally, including 11 SAFTAs (South African Film Awards). Her third film, The House of Tomorrow, was shot on location in Israel and Palestine and had festival debuts in New York and Sarasota in 2012 and won its first award this year in France.
An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events including the invitation-only TEDSalon in London, TEDxHolyLand in Jerusalem and TED India, as well as at DLD Women for the past three years.
With her partner and producer on her films, Hanan Kattan, she runs Enlightenment Productions, based in London and their Canadian film company, SK Enlightenment Films. She is also a founder of the Sarif-Kattan Foundation, focused on empowering and educating women and children.
