Lina Soualem

Lina Soualem, French-Pales­tin­ian-Alger­ian film­mak­er and actress, born and based in Paris. After study­ing His­to­ry and Polit­i­cal Sci­ence at La Sor­bonne Uni­ver­si­ty, Lina worked as a pro­gram­mer for the Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Film Fes­ti­val in Buenos Aires. Lina’s debut fea­ture doc­u­men­tary Their Alge­ria pre­miered in Visions du Réel Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val 2020. Their Alge­ria received more than a dozen awards, such as the First Film award in CINEMED, the Best Arab Doc­u­men­tary award in El Gouna Film Fes­ti­val, and the Best Doc­u­men­tary Award at Cin­e­ma­nia Film Fes­ti­val 2021. Lina act­ed in three fea­ture films direct­ed by Haf­sia Herzi, Hiam Abbass and Ray­hana. In 2020, she worked as a researcher and writ­ing coor­di­na­tor on the series OUSSEKINE (Dis­ney+). Her sec­ond fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary, Bye Bye Tiberias pre­miered in 2023 at The 80th Venice Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, then got select­ed at TIFF, BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val, Chica­go Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, IDFA, DOC NYC, RIDM, Palm Springs & more. The film received sev­er­al awards such as the Best Doc­u­men­tary Award at the BFI and the Jury Prize at the Mar­rakech Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val. Bye Bye Tiberias was cho­sen to rep­re­sent Pales­tine at the Oscars 2024 and was nom­i­nat­ed in the Best Doc­u­men­tary cat­e­go­ry at the 2024 Film Inde­pen­dent Spir­it Awards.