Amin Maher

Amin Maher is an Iranian artist and independent filmmaker based in Germany. He was interested in cinema and literature from an early age and studied both. He began his cinematic activity as a child actor in Abbas Kiarostami's Ten (2002). This film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes International Film Festival and received worldwide attention. The French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma ranked Ten first in its list of the top 10 films of 2002. Four years later, Maher played the main role in his mother Mania Akbari's 10 + 4 (Dah be alaveh chahar) (2007) which screened at many festivals and museums around the world, including San Sebastián, Cannes International Film Festival and Centre Georges Pompidou. It won numerous awards including The Golden Crow Pheasant Award at Kerala International Film Festival. Following this, Maher continued his film activities as an actor and assistant director to Akbari on "6 Video Arts" ("Sin", "Self", "Fear", "Devastation", "Escape", and "Repression") which screened at the Locarno International Film Festival, Tate Modern in London and Niavaran Complex in Tehran. He was also assistant director on the film From Tehran to London (2012) which was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. In 2010, he began studying mathematics at Tehran University. Two months later he was arrested due to his political activities and for attending the Student Day demonstration and spent a week in the notorious Evin prison. Maher subsequently left Iran. He graduated from Limkokwing University in filmmaking and has made several films. His first fictional short Sweet Gin and Cold Wine (2014) was nominated for Best Short Film at the 21st Oldenburg International Film Festival in Germany and won an Award of Recognition at the Open International Film Festival. Maher's second short film, Orange (2015), was also nominated for Best Short Film at festivals including Eko International Film Festival and Indiewise International Film Festival in the USA. One Window Will Suffice (2016) was Maher's first feature film and was nominated for Best Film at 25th Chichester International Film Festival and was screened at festivals around the world including Lakecity Film Festival and at selected London cinemas. In 2017, Maher was working on a new feature film titled Libido, in collaboration with his mother. Maher's artistic activities extend beyond cinema into literature. His first poetry collection "Start Counting From Eleven" was published in 2013, in London, UK.