Talal Derki
Talal Derki (Arabic: طلال ديركي Ṭālāl Dīrkī) is a Syrian Kurdish filmmaker best known for his award-winning documentaries The Return to Homs (2013) and Of Fathers and Sons (2017).
Also recorded as Ṭālāl Dīrkī
Talal Derki
Alfredo Sánchez / Festival Ambulante · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Talal Derki
- Born
- 24 July 1977
- Birthplace
- Damascus, Syria.
- Education
- Stavrakos High Institute of Cinematographic Art and Television Television
- Occupation
- * Film director
- Nationality
- First Syrian Republic
- Fields
- film · film direction · film screenwriting · film production
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Talal Derki (Arabic: طلال ديركي Ṭālāl Dīrkī) is a Syrian Kurdish filmmaker best known for his award-winning documentaries The Return to Homs (2013) and Of Fathers and Sons (2017).
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In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Talal Derki • Native Name — طلال ديركي • Birth Name — Talal Derki • Born — 24 July 1977 • Birthplace — Damascus, Syria. • Education — Stavrakos High Institute of Cinematographic Art and Television Television • Occupation — * Film director • producer • Years Active — 2003–present
Biography
Biography
Born in Damascus, Derki studied film directing in Athens at Stavrakos High Institute of Cinematographic Art and Television, graduating in 2003. He worked as an assistant director for feature film productions and was a director for various Arab TV programs & TV films between 2009 and 2012. He also did freelance camera work for CNN and Thomson Reuters. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film in 2018 and subsequently became a member of the Academy. He is the winner of the German Film Awards, Lola, in 2019. Talal Derki's short films and feature-length documentaries received tens of awards at various festivals. Both of his films Return to Homs and Of Fathers and Sons won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival 2014 and 2018.
Filmography
Filmography
• 2003 - Hello Damascus, goodbye Damascus, short fiction, 16mm (12min) • 2005 - A whole line of trees, short fiction, 35 mm (8min) • 2010 - Hero of All Seas, documentary (28min) • 2013 - Return to Homs, documentary (90min) • 2017 - Of Fathers and Sons, documentary (1h 39min) • 2018 - People of the Wasteland, short experimental, producer (21min) • 2023 - Under the Sky of Damascus, documentary (88min)
Awards & Nominations `Return To Homs´
Awards • Year — Award — Category — Recipient — Result • 2013 — International Documentary Film Festival (Amsterdam, Netherlands) — Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary — Talal Derki • 2014 — Festival Dokumentarnega Filma (Ljubljana, Slowenia) — Amnesty International Award for Best Film on Human Rights — Talal Derki • 2014 — Sundance Film Festival — World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary — Talal Derki • 2014 — San Francisco International Film Festival (San Francisco, USA) — Golden Gate Award - Best Documentary Feature — Talal Derki • 2014 — San Francisco International Film Festival (San Francisco, USA) — Golden Gate Award - Special Jury Recognition — Talal Derki • 2014 — Middle East Now (Florence, Italia) — Audience Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Durham, North Carolina) — The Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — ZAGREBDOX — Two special mentions — Talal Derki • 2014 — Festival International du Film des Droits de l´Homme (Geneva, Switzerland) — Grand Prix de Jury — Talal Derki • 2014 — Festival International du Film des Droits de l´Homme (Paris, France) — Grand Prix Jury Award, Student Jury Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — Doxa (Vancouver, Canada) — Honorable Mention of the Jury — Talal Derki • 2014 — DocsBarcelona (Barcelona, Spain) — Award DocsBarcelone Best Film — Talal Derki • 2014 — Human Rights Watch Film Festival NY (New York, USA) — Silver Horn for Director of Best Feature-Length Documentary — Talal Derki • 2014 — Documenta Madrid Film Festival (Madrid, Spain) — Audience Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — Festival MakeDox — Winner Young Onion Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — EBS International Documentary Film Festival (Seoul, South Korea) — Grand Prix, Jury Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — Du festival des libertés (Brussel, Belgium) — Grand prix for best documentary, Prix SmatBe Award — Talal Derki • 2014 — Cinema Eye Honors Awards — Nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Production AND Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film — Talal Derki • 2014 — ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL (UAE) — Special Mention Documentary Competition — Talal Derki • 2014 — Kraków Film Festival — Cracow Students Jury Award - Documentary Competition — Talal Derki • 2014 — Kraków Film Festival — Silver Horn Best Feature-Length Documentary — Talal Derki • 2015 — The George Polk Awards (USA) — Best Documentary — Talal Derki • 2015 — Roma Independent Film Festival (Italy) — Special mention Documentary Competition — Talal Derki
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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