Directing

Cyril Aris

Biography

Cyril Aris is a Lebanese director and screenwriter, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®. His first fiction feature, A Sad and Beautiful World (2025), premiered at the Venice Film Festival in Giornate Degli Autori, where it won the Audience Award. The film was selected as Lebanon’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Oscars®. The film also screened at BFI London, Palm Springs, San Francisco IFF, and Seminci (Valladolid), winning the Audience Award, and received Best Screenplay at the Red Sea (Saudi Arabia), Best Score at Cinémed (Montpelier), the Grand Prize at Rencontres Cinématographiques in Cannes, Best Film at the Asian World (Los Angeles), Best Film at Tromsø FF (Norway), the Jury Prize at MedFilm (Rome), and Audience Awards in Barcelona, Florence, Ljubljana, Ottawa, Trondheim, among others. His documentary Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (2023) premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary, and won a Jury Special Mention. It screened at BFI London, CPH:DOX and 80+ festivals worldwide. His debut feature The Swing (2018) also premiered at Karlovy Vary and won multiple international awards.