From Sundance Institute Labs to Cannes Success: Behind THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE
About this Event Recording
Projeto Paradiso and Sundance Collab invite you to watch an exclusive, online conversation on the award-winning Iraqi film The President’s Cake.
One of the most celebrated debut feature films of 2025, The President’s Cake premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Camera d’Or and secured distribution from Sony Pictures Classics. This conversation brought together a wealth of guest speakers:
- Hasan Hadi, writer/director of The President’s Cake
- Leah Chen Baker, lead producer of The President’s Cake
- Joséphine Bourgois, executive director of Projeto Paradiso
- Matthew Takata, assistant director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program
With a focus on the importance of the director-producer relationship, this discussion covers the challenges of making a first feature in the current environment and the evolving financing landscape for international productions. The conversation ends with an audience question-and-answer session.
The President’s Cake was supported by the Sundance Institute through its signature artist programs and the Sundance/NHK Award. Don’t miss your chance to learn more from the filmmakers behind this extraordinary film.
Projeto Paradiso and the Sundance Institute are proud partners of the Brazil New Stories Lab. This online conversation is part of the multifaceted program of its 30th edition to be held in São Paulo in 2026.
Event RecordingPeople
Leah Chen Baker
Leah Chen Baker is an Independent Spirit Award–nominated producer and filmmaker. She produced Jamie Dack’s Palm Trees and Power Lines, which won the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, she produced Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake, which won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, received the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award, and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. The film was Iraq’s submission to the 98th Academy Awards and was shortlisted for Best International Feature.
Leah was a 2022 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and Catalyst Fellow. Her work has been supported by The Gotham through the Cannes Producers Network Fellowship and the EFM Fiction Toolbox Program. She is a recipient of the Sundance Institute’s Mark Silverman Honor and the Media Services Producing Award, and she is a member of the Producers Guild of America.
She holds an MFA in Writing and Directing from NYU’s Graduate Film Program and won the Grand Prize in the Women’s Category at the 2023 DGA Student Film Awards for her thesis film, Belated.
Hasan Hadi
Hasan Hadi is an Iraqi writer/director. Hasan grew up in southern Iraq, during wartime, and over the years worked in journalism, production, and as an adjunct professor at NYU's Graduate Film Program. He received the Gotham-Marcie Bloom Fellowship, the Black Family Production Prize and the Sloan Foundation Production Award. He is a 2022 Sundance Lab Fellow and the recipient of the 2022 Sundance/NHK Award, SFFILM Rainin Grant, and Doha Film Institute Grant for his feature debut, THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE.
Matthew Takata
Moderator | Assistant Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program
Matthew Takata is the Assistant Director for the Feature Film Program’s international work at the Sundance Institute. His focus is on international outreach and selection for the Institute’s Screenwriters and Directors Labs in Utah, FFP’s international labs, which have included India, Jordan, Greece, Mexico and Cuba, and the annual Sundance/NHK Award. Previously, Takata worked in development at GK Films, following a stint at Key Creatives and International Creative Management. Takata attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area.