Amin Matalqa

Born in Jordan, raised in Ohio, and living in Los Angeles for the past 14 years, Sundance-winning writer/director Amin Matalqa makes films about dreamers and unsung heroes, bridging the cultural gaps between East and West. His first feature, Captain Abu Raed, won the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 along with 27 international festival prizes and became the first Oscar submission from Jordan. His second film, the feel-good Disney soccer drama, The United, cast a group of players from across the Middle East and North Africa, and was Walt Disney Studio's first Arabic language film. Amin's third feature, Strangely In Love, a Chaplinesque Los Angeles-set comedy adaptation of Dostoevsky's Russian novella White Nights, co-starred Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction) and won Best Feature at the Topanga Film Festival. His latest film, The Rendezvous, a caper adventure starring Stana Katic (Castle) and Raza Jaffrey (Code Black) recently premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival and will be released in the Spring of 2017. Amin has an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute and is an alumnus of the ABC/DGA TV Directors program. Since the loss of his wife Claire in 2015, he continues to live in Los Angeles with his Husky/Shepherd Migo, named after Claire's Teddy Bear.Next up: his first book of satirical stories: Heroes & Idiots; a slate of film and TV projects in development; and Hump, an animated feature he's co-written with partner Matt Antonelli, and is producing with Berlin based MovieBrats Studios, to be directed by former Pixar director, Rob Gibbs. Show less «