Dr. Sanaz Sohrabi

Biography

Sanaz Sohrabi (b.1988, Tehran) is a researcher of visual culture and artist-filmmaker. Sohrabi recently completed an award-winning trilogy of essay films, An Incomplete Calendar (2026, 77 minutes), Scenes of Extraction (2023, 44 minutes), One Image, Two Acts (2020, 44 minutes), unpacking the relationship between political economy of images, archival technologies, and visual cultures of resource extraction in Iran and broader West Asia.

Sohrabi’s works have been shown widely in exhibitions and festivals. Including: Berlinale Forum Expanded, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Cinema du Réel (First Feature Film and Young Jury Awards), Olhar de Cinema (Best International Feature Film), Pesaro Film Festival (Jury Award), IndieLisboa (Silvestre Section Best Short Film), Valdivia International Film Festival Chile (Special Jury Mention), Iran Cinéma Vérité Festival (Winner of International Mid-length), Mimesis Documentary Film Festival (Best Documentary Short), Ann Arbor Film Festival (Jury Award), DocLisboa, Open City Documentary Film Festival, Montréal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM), Sheffield Doc/Fest, Kasseler Dokfest, Videonale, VideoEX Zurich, FIDBA Argentina, among others. Sohrabi’s recent exhibitions include MOMENTA Biennial 2025, Ljubljana Biennial 2023, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, VOX Centre de l'image contemporaine, Montréal, Centre Clark, Montréal, and Carpintarias de São Lázaro, Lisbon. Sohrabi has been supported by fellowships and artist residency awards such as Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and RAW Académie. 

Before arriving at Concordia, Sohrabi received her BFA from Uni­ver­sity of Tehran College of Fine Arts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a merit scholarship. She holds a PhD from the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University. Sohrabi has previously taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Between 2026-7, she will be a Global Fung Fellow at Princeton University, where she will be working on her second feature film.  

Political economy of images, documentary film production, artistic research, archival studies, postcolonial ecologies, visual cultures of resource extraction