Hany Abu-Assad is a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

-Palestinian

Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

 film director. His film Paradise Now

Paradise Now

Paradise Now is a 2005 film directed by Hany Abu-Assad about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. It won a Golden Globe for best foreign language film and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category....

, about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack

Suicide attack

A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...

 in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

 in 2006.

Early life

Abu-Assad was born in Nazareth

Nazareth

Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 in 1961 and emigrated to the Netherlands in 1980. After having studied aerodynamics in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, he worked as an airplane engineer in the Netherlands for several years. Abu-Assad entered the world of cinema and television as a producer. He formed Ayloul Film Productions in 1990.

Film career

In 1998 he directed his first film, Het 14de kippetje (The Fourteenth Chick), from a script by writer Arnon Grunberg

Arnon Grünberg

Arnon Yasha Yves Grunberg is a Dutch writer. Some of his books were written using the heteronym Marek van der Jagt....

. Later films include the documentary Nazareth 2000 (2000) and the feature film Rana's Wedding (2002).

In 2006 his film Paradise Now

Paradise Now

Paradise Now is a 2005 film directed by Hany Abu-Assad about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. It won a Golden Globe for best foreign language film and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category....

won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign language film, and it received an Oscar

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

-nomination in the same category. In 2005 Paradise Now won the Golden Calf

Golden Calf (award)

The Golden Calf is the award of the Netherlands Film Festival, which is held annually in Utrecht. The award has been presented since 1981, originally in six categories: Best actor, Best actress, Best film, Best Short film, Culture Prize and Honourable mention...

 for best Dutch film.

Abu-Assad is currently editing a film entitled The Courier with Arclight Films and is in development on several projects.

Filmography

• Paper House (1992) - Director
• Curfew
  Curfew
  A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
  
  (1993) - Producer
• The 13th
  The 13th
  "The 13th" is the name of a single released by the British group the Cure in 1996. The song was initially released on the album Wild Mood Swings.All tracks written by Smith/Gallup/Bamonte/Cooper/O'Donnell....
  
  (1997, short film) - Director
• The Fourteenth Chick (1998) - Director
• Rana's Wedding (2002) - Director
• Paradise Now
  Paradise Now
  Paradise Now is a 2005 film directed by Hany Abu-Assad about two Palestinian men preparing for a suicide attack in Israel. It won a Golden Globe for best foreign language film and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category....
  
  (2005) - Director
• The Courier (2010) (in post-production) - Director

Documentaries

• Dar 0 Dour (1990) - Producer
• Long Days in Gaza (1991) - Producer
• De Arabieren van 2001 (1999) - Director
• Het Spijkerkwartier (2000) - Director
• Nazareth 2000 (2000) - Director
• Ford Transit
  Ford Transit
  The Ford Transit is a range of panel vans, minibuses, and pickup trucks, produced by the Ford Motor Company in Europe.The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic term...
  
  (2002) - Director

External links

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995845/ "The Courier IMDB page"
• "It was a joke I was even nominated" The Guardian
• "I risked my life to make this movie" The Telegraph
• "Ticket to Paradise?" Christianity Today
• Hany Abu Assad's Profile