Ana Lily Amirpour

Ana Lily Amirpour is an Iranian-American film-maker, screenwriter and actress.

Amirpour's love for film came about when she moved to the United States with her family in the 1980s.

She speaks often about the culture shock she experienced and her connection with American films.

"I got hooked on them. It's how I assimilated and became American through American pop culture and music—Madonna, Michael Jackson. And movies. I was always putting on shows and stuff. My dad got a camcorder when I was 12 and I started making films and imitating commercials. Like, I would remake commercials. I wasn't like; I'm going to be a filmmaker. My parents never encouraged that; I don't know how they would have. Iranians don't do that."

Amirpour's feature directorial debut was A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, described as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western" "with elements of film noir and the restraint of Iranian New Wave cinema" starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Dominic Rains, Mozhan Marnò, and Rome Shadanloo.

The film built up significant buzz when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, eventually being picked up by Kino Lorber and distributed by VICE films.

The movie is described as "a mind-bending adventure set in the humid, neon-lit streets of New Orleans. Inspired by adventure films of the 1980s and '90s, the film follows a young girl with special abilities. After escaping from an asylum, she returns to the chaotic reality around her, making unexpected allies along the way."

Among them was a 2011 short of the same name, which won a "Best Short Film" award at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival and features Nazanin Boniadi in the role played by Sheila Vand in the feature, as well as Marshall Manesh and Dominic Rains from the feature film version.

Among these short films is also A Little Suicide (2012), which received nominations for Best Short Film from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Oldenburg Film Festival and the Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth; Pashmaloo (2011), also starring Sheila Vand from the feature film version of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and screened at Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) in 2011; Ketab (2010), which stars Sheila Vand, and Marshall Manesh from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night; True Love (2010), which won an Audience Award for Best International Short from the Milano International Film Festival Awards; You (2009), a music video featuring San Francisco rock duo Juanita and the Rabbit; and Six and a Half (2009).

Amirpour has written the short film I Feel Stupid (2012) (directed by Milena Pastreich), and part of the story for the feature film The Garlock Incident (2012), in which she also stars.

She is best known for her feature film debut A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, self-described as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western" that made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, and which was based on a previous short film that she wrote and directed, which won Best Short Film at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival.

Amirpour was born in Margate, England to Iranian parents.

She was born partially deaf.

Her family moved to Miami, Florida when she was young.

Her family then settled in Bakersfield, California, where she attended high school.

She began studying biology at UC Santa Barbara but dropped out after one year.

Later she returned to school to study painting and sculpting, attending San Francisco State University for her undergraduate degree, and then studied screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

She has been making films since she was twelve years old.

The film also won the "Revelations Prize" at the 2014 Deauville Film Festival and the Carnet Jove Jury Award, as well as the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation from the Sitges Film Festival.

The film was also nominated for the Halekulani Golden Orchid Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

At the film's premiere, VICE Creative Director Eddy Moretti, whose company released the film, called Amirpour "the next Tarantino".

The New York Times's A.O. Scott also remarked that the film had a "Jim Jarmusch-like cool" and a "disarmingly innocent outlaw romanticism."

In the wake of the film's release, Filmmaker named her to their 2014 list of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

Amirpour's debut film underscores her interstitial identity as an Iranian-American through its landscape and language.

Wide shots featuring the monotonous, dipping movement of dark, heavy machinery against an industrial backdrop in A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night can bring to mind either "an American suburban neighborhood" or "the oil fields of Iran."

The film's language offers layered meanings for both an Iranian and American audience.

For instance, an English-speaking audience may call the fictional town of the film "Bad City," whereas an Iranian audience may interpret it as "Wind City," depending on the particular audience's understanding of an English subtitle-based or Persian-based reading of Arash's license plate.

Amirpour described her second film, an English-language film entitled The Bad Batch as "a post-apocalyptic cannibal love story set in a Texas wasteland" where a "muscled cannibal breaks the rule 'don't play with your food - "It's Road Warrior meets Pretty in Pink with a dope soundtrack." She has also described it as "very violent" and "very romantic" and like "El Topo meets Dirty Dancing". The film stars Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey, and Keanu Reeves. It premiered at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2016, and won the Special Jury prize.

Amirpour's third feature film is Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, starring Jun Jong-seo and Kate Hudson.

In January 2018, Amirpour released a short film for fashion house Kenzo, entitled ''Yo!

My Saint'' in which she collaborated with indie musicians and actors Karen O, Michael Kiwanuka, Alex Zhang Hungtai, and Kiko Mizuhara.

It was filmed in New Orleans in summer 2019 and was produced by John Lesher.

It had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2021, and was released in the United States on September 30, 2022, by Saban Films.

In May 2019, Amirpour announced that she would have directed a female-led reboot of the 1993 film Cliffhanger.

Jason Momoa was a principal actor.

But by May 2023, it was officially reported that the reboot will be redeveloped as a legacy-sequel instead.

Ric Roman Waugh replaced Amirpour as director and Sylvester Stallone returned to reprise his role from the original, in addition to taking on a role as producer.

The sequel will have a presence at Cannes, where distributing studios will be decided.

No release date has been set.

Amirpour has written, produced and directed several short films before her directorial debut with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.