Maïssa Lihedheb
Maïssa Lihedheb, a Tunisian-German filmmaker, author, and curator, works between Germany, Tunisia, and the United States. Born and raised in Germany to Tunisian
immigrants, she earned her bachelor’s degree in media and entertainment management with a thesis on “Symbolic Destruction in Mass Media and its Impact on the Identity of First-Generation Immigrants”. She then earned her master’s in film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2020, she founded the BIPOC Film Society in Berlin, a collective dedicated to promoting intersectionality and questioning the dominance of white, male, heteronormative perspectives in film and film criticism.
Maïssa Lihedhebs’ works are distinguished by their dark humour, feminist horror elements, and sociopolitical critiques. She has directed and produced 13 short films, one documentary film (Ramadan in a Day for SWR/ARD), and one television series (Wir for ZDFneo, for which she directed four episodes). In 2024, she directed a segment of a Coldplay music video. In 2022, her short film Hundefreund premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival, won the Best Film Prize at the Interfilm Festival in Berlin, and was nominated for the German Short Film Prize. Her most recent short films include New York Woman, which premiered in 2025 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Samra’s Dollhouse, which premiered at the Palm Springs International ShortFest. She is also an Ang Lee Scholar and the recipient of a DAAD fellowship.
Maïssa Lihedheb is in residence at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2025 to January 2026.
Maïssa Lihedheb, a Tunisian-German filmmaker, author, and curator, works between Germany, Tunisia, and the United States. Born and raised in Germany to Tunisian
immigrants, she earned her bachelor’s degree in media and entertainment management with a thesis on “Symbolic Destruction in Mass Media and its Impact on the Identity of First-Generation Immigrants”. She then earned her master’s in film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2020, she founded the BIPOC Film Society in Berlin, a collective dedicated to promoting intersectionality and questioning the dominance of white, male, heteronormative perspectives in film and film criticism.
Maïssa Lihedhebs’ works are distinguished by their dark humour, feminist horror elements, and sociopolitical critiques. She has directed and produced 13 short films, one documentary film (Ramadan in a Day for SWR/ARD), and one television series (Wir for ZDFneo, for which she directed four episodes). In 2024, she directed a segment of a Coldplay music video. In 2022, her short film Hundefreund premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival, won the Best Film Prize at the Interfilm Festival in Berlin, and was nominated for the German Short Film Prize. Her most recent short films include New York Woman, which premiered in 2025 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Samra’s Dollhouse, which premiered at the Palm Springs International ShortFest. She is also an Ang Lee Scholar and the recipient of a DAAD fellowship.
Maïssa Lihedheb is in residence at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2025 to January 2026.