Haya B. AlGhanim (HBG) is a filmmaker and artist based between New York City and Kuwait City. Through her creative and professional practice, AlGhanim aims to preserve and represent modern Arab art and culture.
AlGhanim works in the mediums of film, video, photography and new media. Her work has been exhibited at various international film festivals, exhibition venues, and institutions including the Sharjah Art Foundation, Misk Art Institute, the Arab American National Museum, Lothringer 13 Halle and more. Her most recent short documentary, An Evening with Laila, premiered at the Malmo Arab Film Festival, won Best International Documentary at the Alexandria Short Film Festival and is distributed by MAD Solutions. Her short narrative, Same, Old, premiered at the Urbanworld Film Festival (presented by HBO). Her short documentary, By the Medina, For the Medina, won in the best documentary short category at the first Kuwait Film Festival. Her short documentaries By the Medina, For the Medina and Freaky are distributed by New York University for educational use. She is now in production on a narrative short, Somewhere Else, supported by Netflix MENA and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), and in development on her first narrative feature, Road 250, a selection of the Rawi Screenwriters Lab (in collaboration with the Sundance Institute) and Red Sea Lodge (in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab).
AlGhanim also produces digital content for new media platforms. Her commercial and marketing experience includes stints at Film at Lincoln Center, Us Weekly, and MATTE Projects. She is currently on the marketing teams of leading film distributor Kino Lorber and newly-launched Watermelon Pictures. She is on the programming committees of the Arab Film and Media Institute and the Gotham Film & Media Institute (previously IFP), and has served on the juries of the Brooklyn Film Festival and Arab Film and Media Institute’s Arab Film Festival.
Haya AlGhanim received her MFA in Film from Columbia University, where she was a Teaching Fellow for the undergraduate Film Studies program. She holds a BA from The New School, where she was also a Teaching Assistant for courses in16mm filmmaking and digital video production.