Dania Bdeir is a Lebanese writer and director with a love/hate relationship with Lebanon. A member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Dania has a B.A. in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut and an M.F.A. in Filmmaking from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received a full scholarship in her third year. Her thesis film, In White, which won the Spike Lee Production Grant, had its world premiere at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival. It also screened at the BFI Film Festival in London, the Uppsala Short Film Festival and the Curta Cinema in Rio de Janeiro, where it won the International Grand Prize. Dania was selected as a Berlinale Talent in 2019 and was one of 10 directors to participate in its Short Film Station with her short film Warsha, which secured a broadcaster’s pre-purchase deal with ARTE. Dania is developing her first feature, Pigeon Wars, which was selected for the TFLxDFI Hezaya Screenwriting Lab and was a finalist for the 2020 Nantucket Screenwriter’s Colony.

Pigeon Wars — Rana, a feisty and overly competitive young woman, driven to win at the male-dominated pigeon wars of Beirut, realizes that her relentless drive stems from a deeper pain.