Meet our team

Meet our Team

The IIFF is a volunteer run initiative by a small group of Iraqis working in the cinema industry.

Róisín Tapponi

Tapponi is the Founder of Habibi Collective, and Founder CEO of Shasha, the world’s first streaming service for SWANA cinema.

Tapponi has curated films at numerous institutions including MoMA; Sharjah Art Foundation and festivals and independent spaces across the world. She has led industry masterclasses at Locarno Film Festival, CPH:DOX and Sheffield Doc Fest; and has been on the Jury for many festivals, most recently Open City Documentary Festival (2021).

She has lectured on SWANA cinema at leading institutions including Oxford University, University College London (UCL), UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. She is also an independent curator, writer at Frieze Magazine, Founder Editor-in-Chief of ART WORK Magazine and a PhD student. 

Tapponi is currently the Co-Founder and Programmer of IIFF.

Shahnaz Dulaimy

Dulaimy is a feature film editor and the first Avid Certified Editor in the Middle East. She began her editing career by working on multi-award winning productions including the Oscar nominated film Theeb by Naji Abu Nowar, and Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You. Most recently, she has been working alongside the Oscar nominated director Basil Khalil on his first feature length film A Gaza Weekend. Aside from editing, Shahnaz is also a member of Habibi Collective. 

Dulaimy is currently the Co-Founder, Producer and Designer of IIFF.

Israa Al-Kamali

Israa Al-Kamali is an LA and Qatar-based Iraqi filmmaker, screenwriter, and poet.

She explores cultural and social issues through her writing and filmmaking. Her poetry, which she performed in various events and platforms, explores themes of displacement and language deconstruction. Her recent piece, Different is Tonight, was published in an E-book titled Together Apart by Hamad bin Khalifa University which served as a collection of human experiences during the pandemic.

Israa is currently working on her feature-length film while pursuing her MFA in Filmmaking at New York Film Academy (LA).

al-Kamali is currently the Co-Founder and Social Media Manager of IIFF.

Ahmed Habib

Since 2001, Ahmed has been part of the shakomakonet team, a digital platform dedicated to Everything Iraqi. When not working, Ahmed is either watching football, listening to obscure music from the 80s, working on a book that he will never write or on the look out for the world’s best fried eggplant sandwich.

Habib managed the Design of IIFF during its first iteration in 2020.