Talal Derki was born in Damascus and has been based in Berlin since 2014. He studied film directing in Athens and worked as an assistant director for several feature film productions. He also directed various TV programs for Arab broadcasters between 2009 and 2011. Furthermore, he worked as a freelance cameraman for CNN and Thomson & Reuters. Both his short films and his features have been awarded at many festivals worldwide. His feature documentary RETURN TO HOMS (DocsBarcelona 2014) won the Word Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2014. That same year, he was also a member of the international Jury at IDFA.
