Hana Makhmalbaf (, ; born September 3, 1988) is an Iranian filmmaker. She is the younger sister of filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf and daughter of filmmakers Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Fatemeh Meshkini. She is known for her films Joy of Madness (2003), Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007) and Green Days (2009). Makhmalbaf won the Lina Mangiacapre Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2003 for Joy of Madness (2003), which also won the Special Jury Prize at Tokyo Filmex. Makhmalbaf's film Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame won various awards as well, such as the Paolo Ungari UNICEF Prize at the Rome Film Festival and the Peace Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Early life and education
Makhmalbaf's film involvement began early in her life. By age three, she had already attended the Cannes Film Festival. Her own work gained attention by age eight when the Locarno Film Festival screened her first short film titled The Day My Aunt Was Ill.
Makhmalbaf expressed interest in being a painter, but did not like the "loneliness" that she described in the art form. She then was drawn to filmmaking, and she found the on-set experience compelling. In an interview, Makhmalbaf explained that hearing the words "lights, camera, action" was exciting and had a "strange power".
At the age of eight, Makhmalbaf decided she did not want to continue attending school. She then switched to her father's film academy and studio, Makhmalbaf Film House, in her hometown of Tehran. In the Makhmalbaf Film House, the students learned about many art forms such as painting, photography and cinema.
Her first feature film, Buddha Collapsed out of Shame, won an award at Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 2007, as well as two awards from San Sebastian International Film Festival, in Spain, and the Crystal Bear for the Best Feature Film by the Generation Kplus Children's Jury at the Berlinale Film Festival in 2008.
Her second feature, Green Days premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was a documentary about the run-up to the 2009 Presidential Election in Iran. Makhmalbaf made use of footage from protesters by inter-cutting scenes of the post-election violence garnered from cell-phone and other amateur videos circulating anonymously. Green Days also screened at the Venice Film Festival.
After Green Days, Makhmalbaf went on to work on her father's film, The President. In 2015, Makhmalbaf announced her next film, entitled Single Mother. Many of Malkhmalbaf's family members worked on the film, with her father, Mohsen Malkhmalbaf, writing the script, and her brother, Maysam Malkhmalbaf, producing it. Malhmalbaf and her family spent time in Italy when working on the script.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Film
|-
|2003
|Joy of Madness
|-
|2007
|Buddha Collapsed out of Shame
|-
|2009
|Green Days
|-
|2023
|The List
|}