ABOUT SARA

Sara is a Yemeni-Scottish film director, screenwriter and trainer who was born in Scotland, grew up in Yemen and is currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 2007 with an MA General Honours in Humanities (focusing on Religion, Middle Eastern Politics and International Law), Sara began working in media with organisations such as the BBC, Channel 4 and others.

In 2011, Sara filmed her independent debut film Karama Has No Walls (2012), during Yemen’s ‘Arab Spring’ uprising, while she was filming there as a BBC camerawoman. Her debut short film was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) and a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award.

In 2012, Sara graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art (UoE) with an MFA in Film Directing, and soon after released her award-winning personal feature documentary The Mulberry House, which premiered at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA), screened theatrically in Austria having won Best Film at the One World Film Festival in Vienna, and later aired on Al-Jazeera English.  

In 2015, Sara began teaching filmmaking in Yemen in the wake of the current war, which led to the founding of Comra, a film foundation and academy from which some of Yemen’s most exciting new talent has emerged.

In the last few years, she has been working on two independent feature films, including her first fiction film, 'The Station', which is now in pre-production. ‘The Station’ was selected for L’Atelier de la Cinéfondation Festival de Cannes 2020 and Venice Film Festival Gap Financing 2024, among others. Her feature documentary (currently untitled) is supported by Sundance, Chicken & Egg, Catapult media and IMS.

In Amsterdam, Sara works as Program Manager at the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (founded by IDFA, IFFR and the European Film Academy).

Sara has chaired multiple jury committees at film funds and festivals such as the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA), BFI London Film Awards, BBC Aan Korb Arab Film Festival, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, (AFAC), IDFA Bertha Fund, MOOOV Film Festival and DoxBox.