Name: Elika Rezaee

Recipient Year: 2021

Sponsor: ISF Film Grant

Name of Film: Balcony

Description: Elika Rezaee is an international award-winning Iranian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Elika learned her editing and directing skills under the most significant filmmakers in Iran. During this time she became affiliated with an experimental filmmaking wave in Iran. After immigrating to the US, she attended the American Film Institute where she graduated with an MFA in film editing in 2015. Her body of work as a director explores themes such as human relations/ connections and war. With her unique vision, her objectives as a filmmaker are to create empathy and show beauty through the eyes of her characters. Influenced by her formal training and almost 2 decades of working professionally as an editor, she implements her editorial standards in both style and quality as a storyteller. Elika partially attributes her success as an editor and filmmaker to her Iranian upbringing; her cultural differences have taught her work ethic and patience which led her to be a good creative collaborator.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elika-rezaee-2b745361/