Join Sundance Collab for our Global Cinema Meetup, a new series in which we invite a filmmaker to discuss financing and making and films outside the U.S. Following this intimate conversation, attendees will have the opportunity to network in small groups to meet other creators as well as discuss their own projects and the challenges they’re encountering.


For our first event, we’ll be joined by Hasan Hadi, writer/director of the upcoming film The President’s Cake, the first ever Iraqi film to be shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. This first feature was developed in the Sundance Institute Feature Film Labs and won the Caméra d’Or when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025. Hadi will discuss the burgeoning Iraqi film industry, the importance of authenticity in his work, and cross-border collaboration. 

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. more...
Erica Elson
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN. more...

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