Tunisian director Kauser Ben Hania, whose The Voice of Hind Rajab is a nominee for the 2026 Academy Award for Best International Feature, will receive a special award at Italy’s Biograph Film Festival, a unique event that celebrates human life in film.
Ben Hania, who won the Silver Lion after receiving the longest standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival in September for The Voice of Hind Rajab, which premiered to thunderous applause for over 20 minutes, will be honored with the festival’s International Celebration of Lives Award. The honor is dedicated to “recognizing filmmakers who have left an indelible mark on the art of contemporary film and real-world storytelling,” according to a statement.
The director, whose previous two films, “The Man Who Sold His Skin” and “The Four Daughters,” were also nominated for Oscars, is touring film festivals with “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which centers on a single, unforgettable voice. It is the voice of a real 5-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and later found dead.
The Biography Festival Tribute will see Ben Hania return to the Biography Festival following his appearance at the 2024 edition of the Italian premiere of The Four Daughters, which combines documentary and fiction. The film explores the story of Orfa Hamrouni, a Tunisian who promoted the radicalization of her two teenage daughters who left Tunisia to fight ISIS.
In a joint statement, Chiara Liberti and Massimo Benvegne, artistic directors of the Biography Festival, expressed their enthusiasm for this year’s winners, saying: “In an era of rapid and fleeting visual stimuli, Kauser Ben Hania’s films provide an important space for resistance and militancy.” “Her evolution from the intimate, familial story of The Four Daughters to the urgent historical testimony of The Voice of Hind Rajab shows rare mastery. We are honored to honor a director who does more than observe reality. She interrogates it with a courage that is as deeply ethical as it is aesthetically bold.”
Previous recipients of the Celebration of Lives Award include Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola, Radu Jude, and Olivier Assayas.
The 22nd Biografilm Festival will be held in Bologna from June 5th to 15th
