Cyril Aris is a Lebanese Director & Screenwriter and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences® .

His first fiction feature film, ‘A Sad and Beautiful World ’ (2025), produced by Abbout Productions (Lebanon) & Diversity Hire (USA) premiered at the 82nd Venice Film Festival in the Giornate Degli Autori competition, and it won the Audience Award. It was selected as Lebanon’s candidate for Best International Feature Film in the 98th Oscars®.

The film also played at BFI London Film Festival, and the Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) in Spain, where it won the Audience Award, Palm Springs, and the San Francisco Film Festival. Other awards include Best Screenplay at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, the Snow Leopard for Best Film at the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles, the Aurora Award for Best Film at Tromsø Film Festival in Norway, the Grand Prize at the Rencontres Cinématographiques in Cannes, the Best Score and Youth Jury Award at Cinémed in France, the Jury Prize at the MedFilm Festival in Rome, the Jury Prize in Annonay, and Audience Awards in Barcelona (D’A Film Festival), Florence (Middle East Film), Ottawa (Ottawa IFF), Ljubljana (LIFF), Trondheim (Kosmorama IFF), among others.

His previous feature documentary Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (2023), received a post-production grant from the Sundance Institute and premiered in the main competition at Karlovy Vary, where it won a jury special mention. The film screened at BFI London, CPH:DOX, DOC NYC, and over 80 other festivals, winning awards in Rotterdam, Valencia, Rome, San Francisco, Marseille, and beyond. His debut feature documentary, The Swing (2018), also premiered at Karlovy Vary and won multiple awards across Europe and the Arab world.

His fiction short film, The President’s Visit (2017), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), won Oscar-qualifying awards and played in over 70 festivals.

He holds an MFA from Columbia University in the City of New York, and also works as an editor, with credits including Costa Brava, Lebanon (2021), directed by Mounia Akl, which premiered in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival, won the NETPAC award at the Toronto International Festival, the audience award at the BFI London Film Festival, and the FIPRESCI award at El-Gouna.

Cyril is represented by London-based agency Independent Talent and managed by 75East.