Diana Kadah is a Berlin-based Syrian filmmaker, actress, and visual storyteller whose work interrogates displacement, citizenship, family trauma, and the psychological legacies of war and post-war.
Her recent short film, Damascene, won Best Cinematography and was nominated at the Cannes World Film Festival, exploring the intergenerational impact of the Syrian conflict and the paradox of belonging between two nations. In 2023, Diana co-directed the film "ALIVE," which won the Hollywood Gold Award.
In 2022, she wrote and directed Little Ella, a 15-minute German short film that examines the psychological impact of divorce on a six-year-old girl who discovers her father is a drug-addicted DJ unable to care for her. The film, produced through Berlin's self-organized filmArche school, screened at the Arche Film Festival, celebrating 20 years of filmArche. Diana is also a recipient of Germany's prestigious FARBENBEKENNEN Award, which recognizes artists addressing migration, diversity, and social justice.
A Film Production graduate from the University of St Mark & St John (Plymouth, UK), Diana brings extensive experience as a producer, director, and cinematographer in the commercial sector, where she has worked across branded content, music videos, and corporate storytelling.
Diana's artistic journey began early: at 17, she received the Aleppo Theatre Festival Citation Award in Syria for her performance in "The Great Romulus," marking the beginning of a career that spans performance, direction, and production.
Through a hybrid approach that merges documentary intimacy with fictional structure, Diana creates character-driven narratives that expose the bureaucratic violence faced by refugees and migrants, while also examining intimate family dynamics and childhood trauma. Her films are deeply informed by her lived experience of exile, her German heritage through her grandmother, and her ongoing research into how nations—and families—define and deny belonging.
She is currently developing new projects that continue to center marginalized voices within systems designed to exclude them, blending autobiography with political critique to challenge dominant narratives around refugees, identity, and home.
