About
Hakawati (meaning storyteller in Arabic) is a London-based creative company, producing and curating work that holds the art of storytelling at its core.
Set up in 2017 by BAFTA-nominated producer Elhum Shakerifar, we believe that storytelling is both an art and a responsibility. All our projects derive from the central tenet that a good story is in the telling, and that we are the stories we tell.
Hakawati was a recipient of the BFI Vision Award and named a Screen International #Brit50 Producer on the Rise. Our current slate is supported by BBC Films, British Film Institute, Doc Society, Sundance, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Doha Film Institute, Chicken and Egg Foundation, Diane Weyermann Memorial Fund and Field of Vision amongst others.
About Elhum Shakerifar
Elhum Shakerifar is a producer, curator, poet and translator; she runs the London-based company Hakawati ('storyteller' in Arabic). Elhum's award-winning productions have garnered her accolades including a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut (A Syrian Love Story, by Sean McAllister 2016), a British Film Institute 'Vision Award' (2016), the Women in Film & TV Factual Award (2017) and a nomination for the Arab British Centre's Award for Culture. As a film curator with particular focus on the SWANA region, she has worked with London Film Festival (2014-21), Shubbak – the festival of contemporary Arab culture (2015-19), BFI (Drama and Desire, the films of Youssef Chahine, 2023), Barbican (Poetry in Motion: Contemporary Iranian Cinema, 2019) and Art on the Underground. She has taught film extensively and internationally. Elhum is a regular contributor to BFI Online, Another Gaze, Sight & Sound and LUX amongst others; her film writing includes DVD essays for Mogul Mowgli (Bassam Tariq, 2020) and All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia, 2024). Elhum has served on juries for BAFTA as well as at festivals including Toronto International Film Festival and BlackStar. She is a voting member of BAFTA and AMPAS (Oscars), and a member of APSA.