By Scott Roxborough Europe Bureau Chief Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi has won the Directors ... darkly comic debut feature The President’s Cake. The €7,500 ($8,400) cash prize is the only ...

With “The President’s Cake,” Hadi has done exactly that, closely following his lead-character Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef, in an impossibly soulful performance). It’s Iraq in the 1990s ...

Cannes: In his debut feature, executive-produced by Eric Roth and Marielle Heller, Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi wisely prioritizes ... in charge of baking the cake — her classmates got off lucky ...

"Imam Hassan Sharif was younger, so could relate to them on that basis," Small said. "He made sure he worked with the community, that’s how he could reach them. A lot of young people passed the ...

Sales agency Films Boutique has closed two key territories on Iraqi writer/director Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake” ahead of its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight during the ...

Even then, the happenstance link between Hasan Hadi’s compassionate directorial debut “The President’s Cake” and Fatih Akin’s quiet epic “Amrum” is something of a shock, as both ...

Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi has won the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his poignant, darkly comic debut feature The President’s Cake. The €7,500 ...

Perhaps the most surprising thing about today’s world premiere of The President’s Cake in the Directors ... this is a true gem and a real discovery from Hasan Hadi. With the right distributor ...