She was born in Germany in 1968 and grew up in Teheran and Vienna. She studied Theatre and Film in Vienna. She worked as a film festival programmer and was director and curator of the art house cinema Filmcasino in Vienna. After doing a course on film, TV and digital media at the UCLA in 2003, she worked as assistant director and head of production, and directed several short films. She made her debut in feature films with the documentary Children of the Prophet (2006). Her first feature length fiction film was Macondo (2014) which she presented at the Berlinale, subsequently winning awards at various international festivals (it was part of the New Waves at the Seville Festival). Joy won the Europa Cinemas Label, and also the recently established Hearst Award for Best Female Director at Venice.
Festival de Cine de Sevilla
