biography

Randa Ali is a director & writer working between Los Angeles and Cairo. She graduated in 2023 with an MFA in directing from UCLA’s school of theater, film and television where she was a recipient of a full-ride scholarship awarded to female filmmakers from the Arab world. Her first short film Kingdom of Strangers (2022), an exploration of memory & exile, was awarded the ARRI Franz Weiser grant and won the Jury awards at Toronto Arab Film Festival, Cairo Int'l Shorts Film Festival & Beirut Shorts. Her most recent short, Mango (2024) landed its world premiere at the Clermont-Ferrand Int'l Short Film Festival. Randa is interested in telling stories of individuals through their relationship with their cities. She is currently developing her first feature film.