Maryam Ghorbankarimi
Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, editor, researcher and Associate Professor in Film at Lancaster University. With more than 20 years of professional experience in filmmaking and editing, her practice spans fiction, documentary and experimental cinema, bringing together creative filmmaking and critical approaches to film.
Alongside her filmmaking practice, Maryam is an internationally recognised scholar of Iranian and transnational cinema. She is the author of A Colourful Presence: The Evolution of Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema (2015), editor of ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) and The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iranian Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2024), and co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Shirin Neshat (Edinburgh University Press, 2026). Her research encompasses Iranian cinema, women and film, transnational filmmaking, and questions of representation, identity and cultural politics.
At Lancaster University, Maryam teaches filmmaking alongside film theory and has developed and led modules in short film production, experimental cinema and transnational cinema. Her teaching is closely informed by her professional practice, encouraging emerging filmmakers to understand creative and technical decisions as integral parts of cinematic storytelling.
Maryam is also the founder of Bina Film and Co-Director of Art Beats Festival, an international collaboration between Lancaster University and Sunway University that brings together students, filmmakers and artists through exhibitions, screenings, workshops and masterclasses. Across her work as a filmmaker, educator and researcher, she is committed to supporting emerging creative voices and to filmmaking as a means of storytelling, experimentation and cultural exchange.
Alongside her filmmaking practice, Maryam is an internationally recognised scholar of Iranian and transnational cinema. She is the author of A Colourful Presence: The Evolution of Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema (2015), editor of ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) and The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iranian Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2024), and co-editor of ReFocus: The Films of Shirin Neshat (Edinburgh University Press, 2026). Her research encompasses Iranian cinema, women and film, transnational filmmaking, and questions of representation, identity and cultural politics.
At Lancaster University, Maryam teaches filmmaking alongside film theory and has developed and led modules in short film production, experimental cinema and transnational cinema. Her teaching is closely informed by her professional practice, encouraging emerging filmmakers to understand creative and technical decisions as integral parts of cinematic storytelling.
Maryam is also the founder of Bina Film and Co-Director of Art Beats Festival, an international collaboration between Lancaster University and Sunway University that brings together students, filmmakers and artists through exhibitions, screenings, workshops and masterclasses. Across her work as a filmmaker, educator and researcher, she is committed to supporting emerging creative voices and to filmmaking as a means of storytelling, experimentation and cultural exchange.
The Film Is Made in the Edit: Editing as Storytelling
Drawing on over 20 years of professional experience as a film editor, this masterclass explores editing as a creative and storytelling practice rather than simply a technical process. Through examples from landmark and contemporary films, Maryam Ghorbankarimi will unpack how editors shape story, emotion, performance, rhythm and audience perspective through decisions about what to show, when to cut, what to withhold and when not to cut at all. Combining practical insights from her own editing experience with close examination of film sequences, the session reveals how the edit is ultimately where a film finds its final form, rhythm and meaning.