Tamer Ashry
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Born in 25 October, 1983, Tamer Ashry is an Egyptian director and producer who has 20 years of experience in filmmaking. Tamer Ashry worked as a director, producer, screenwriter, editor and cinematographer in a number of feature films, documentaries and television films in the Arab world, in addition to directing and producing several ads for the TV. Ashry is the Founder and CEO of BEE Media Productions that he founded with the aim of applying his ideas to the film industry.
Tamer Ashry's passion for visual art and storytelling encouraged him to make films in early age, as he worked in a documentary filmmaking company. Later on, he independently produced and directed his debut documentary film January 28 (2008) which paved his career in the documentary filmmaking. This made a number of production companies to collaborate with him in several long documentaries. In 2010, Tamer Ashry wrote and directed his second documentary film The Seventh War, which features the last wars in Gaza in 2009. Later on, he directed the short documentary film Decent Living in 2012, followed by Sexual Harassment in Egypt in 2013, in which he took a closer look at the causes and consequences of sexual harassment and tries to understand the mindset of the harassers and what motivates them. In the same year, Tamer Ashry wrote, produced and directed the short documentary film Pictures from Gaza and directed his debut TV show, El-Mashrou'. In 2014, Ashry worked as an editor in the short documentary film The Orchard Keepers, and as a second assistant director in the long feature film The Blue Elephant.
Tamer Ashry joined the cast of international films such as Trials of Spring (2015) by the Oscar-nominated director Jenny Riecker, and the documentary film Sacred (2016) by the Oscar-winning director Thomas Lennon. The feature film Nawara (2015) marks Tamer Ashry's first step into the film production career. The film reaped more than 10 awards in prestigious film festivals around the world.
After 9 years of experience in filmmaking, Tamer Ashry made his directorial debut in 2017 with the feature film Photocopy, in which he portrays an exceptional love story between a man and a woman who rediscover the meanings of love and life. Photocopy film won many awards, including El Gouna Golden Star for the Best Arab Film at El Gouna Film Festival, the Best Feature Film at the Tripoli Film Festival in Lebanon, the Golden Critics Award for Best Film at the Geneva International Oriental Film Festival, the Audience Award for Best Film at Malmö Arab Film Festival, and the Best First-Time Director award at the Egyptian Film Association Festival. In addition, the film was selected within the Egyptian Film Association's list of Best Five Films produced in 2017.
For the second year in a row, Tamer Ashry competed with his short film Ma Taelash Ean El Hageb (Eyebrow) (2018) at El Gouna Film Festival and received El Gouna Golden Star award for the Best Arab Short Film. This marks Tamer Ashry's second win in the festival since the award he received for his film Photocopy. In 2021, Tamer Ashry joined the jury members of the festival's fifth edition within the Short Films Competition.
Moreover, Tamer Ashry has collaborated with the United Nations organizations including the UNICEF, UNFPA, and IOM in creating and managing awareness campaigns on human rights, gender equality, and child abuse. He also collaborated with the FAO in several documentaries, in addition to a number of NGOs.