CINEMA

​Ary Zara is a transgender writer and director. He studied cinema at Universidade Lusófona in Lisbon and at University of Texas in Austin.

AN AVOCADO PIT, his debut short film, has earned a spot on the shortlist of the 96th Academy Awards® (Oscars®) and Elliot Page has become its Executive Producer. This achievement comes after the short film has garnered 90+ selections and 20+ awards in festivals such as: Clermont-Ferrand, Indie Lisboa, AFI FEST, Brest, BFI, Guadalajara and Outfest. ​

Ary is developing his first feature, SUN IN SATURN. He took part in Torino Script Lab 2023 where he won CNC Prize for his pitch and Dot.on.the.map 2024 where he won Best Debut Project. SUN IN SATURN was also selected for EAVE in 2024. Ary is in pre-production of his second short TOKOS, developed at Midpoint Institute, pitched at WEMW 2024, to be completed in 2025. This was the project chosen by Portugal to be pitched at Euro Connection in Clermont-Ferrand 2025.

Ary is one of the directors selected for the Program La Factory des Cinéastes – Cannes Ceára - under the umbrella of Directors’ Fortnight 2025

Ary always tries to contribute actively to the cinema panorama, he was a jury member for Pitch ME (a program in collaboration with the Portuguese Film Academy and Netflix), and also for Indie Lisboa Film Festival 2023 in the International short films section. He has also participated as a speaker for Maajara Film School in Iran, and My Film Ideology panel - Young Director Support Project (YDSP) Liangjie Culture Media in Beijing.
Ary started to teach cinema basics, as a guest director, for Lisbon Creative Studio.

He is a member of the Portuguese Cinema Academy and was recently invited to join the European Film Academy.