Feras Fayyad Biography
Oscar-nominated Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad (Last Men in Aleppo, 2017), is a director, writer, editor, producer and composer. He is the first Syrian to receive an Academy Award nomination, and was almost unable to attend the awards ceremony in 2018 after his visa was rejected in response to President Trump's Executive Order 13780 (Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States). Thankfully, the publicity surrounding this helped an appeal go forward and he was eventually granted a visa to get into the United States to attend the 90th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Fayyad named one of GOOD Magazine's 100 creative Global change-makers of 2014. His latest film, The Cave (2019), won the People's Choice Award for Best Documentary at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It also won the Audience Award at the 2019 Camden International Film Festival and was the winner of a 2019 Critics' Choice Documentary Award for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary.