Ziad Abdullah (Arabic: زياد عبدالله) is a Syrian film critic, author and screenwriter.

Early life and career

Ziad Abdullah was born on 20 August 1975 in

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

. He studied English literature at

Tishreen University Tishreen University ( ar, جامعة تشرين, lit=October University), is a public university located in Latakia, Syria. It is the third-largest university in Syria. History The university was founded under the name of the ''University o ...

, Latakia. Since 1995 he has been publishing poetry, articles and translations. In 2000 after completing his graduation he moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates and founded Oxygen, an online cultural magazine in Arabic Language. From 2005 to 2012 as a film critic, he reviewed many films from the international arena of the Arab cinema world. During this period, he also wrote for journals and magazines such as Al Akhbar, Al Hayat, Al Bayan, Alaraby, and Al Faisal, and was also a jury member of the Al Khaleej Film Festival 2007. He founded Oxygen magazine in 2005. In 2011, Ziad joined

Dubai International Film Festival The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ar, مهرجان دبي السينمائي الدولي) is the leading film festival in the Arab region. The 12th edition of DIFF took place from December 9 – 16, 2015. In 2018, the DIFF announce ...

as a programmer and developing manager and worked on the project Top 100 Arabic Films (DIFF). Since 2016 he has been working with the

Sharjah Art Foundation The Sharjah Art Foundation ( ar, مؤسسة الشارقة للفنون) is a contemporary art and cultural foundation based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, founded in 2009 by Hoor Al Qasimi, daughter of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, a me ...

. As a columnist, Ziad also contributes in notable news papers such as

The New Arab ''The New Arab'' or ''Al-Araby Al-Jadeed'' ( ar, العربي الجديد) is a pan-Arab news website headquartered in London. It was first launched in March 2014 as an online news website by Qatari company Fadaat Media. It went on to establis ...

Al Akhbar (Lebanon) ''Al Akhbar'' ( ar, الأخبار, literally "''The News''") is a daily Arabic language newspaper published in a semi tabloid format in Beirut. The newspaper's writers have included Ibrahim Al Amine, As'ad AbuKhalil, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Sharmin ...

Al-Hayat Al-Hayat ( ar, الحياة meaning "Life") was a London-based, pan-Arab newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan, that had a circulation estimated over 200,000. It was the newspaper of record for the Arab diaspora and the preferred v ...

and

Emarat Al Youm ''Emarat Al Youm'' (Arabic: الإمارات اليوم, ''al-Imārāt al-yawm'' - meaning ''The Emirates Today'') is an Arabic newspaper published by Dubai Media Incorporated. The paper is published in Dubai. The newspaper content focuses on d ...

Filmography

As a screenwriter Ziad wrote story of American educational children's television series

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

and Beep (short film 2011) which was also selected for Oran International Arabic Film Festival.

Bibliography

Poetry

* A Little Before Ink (2000) * Angels of Highways (2005)

Novels and short stories

* Bur Dubai (2008) * Dynamite (2012) * The Strange Chronicles of The Half-Named Man (Collection of short stories 2016) * Dogs of Liberated Zones (Novel 2017)

Translations

* Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame by Charles Bukowski (2016) * Ways of Seeing by John Berger (2017)

Edited books

* The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (2018) * Possessing the Secret of Joy, by Alice Walker (2018) * Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald (2018) * Oracle Nights by Paul Auster (2018)

Critic

* Cinema of Passion (Dubai International Film Festival's Top 100 Arabic Films 2016) * Islam and Laughter (2018)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdullah, Ziad Syrian writers Living people Syrian screenwriters 1975 births People from Latakia Tishreen University alumni