Biography
Kurdwin Ayub was born in 1990 in Dohuk, Iraq, as the daughter of a pair of doctors. When she was still an infant, her parents fled Iraq with her and settled in Vienna. From 2008 to 2013, Ayub studied Painting and Experimental Animation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Starting in 2011, she also pursued studies in Performative Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
Beginning in 2010, Ayub created several short experimental and narrative films in Austria, which were showcased at international festivals. Her works "Schneiderei (Vaginale VI)" ("Abscission (Vaginale VI)") and "Sommerurlaub (Vaginale VII)" ("Summer Holiday (Vaginale VII)") earned her the MehrWERT Short Film Award at the Viennale in 2011. She received the award again in 2012 for her eight films presented at the festival.
Her feature-length documentary "Paradise! Paradise!" (Austria, 2016) was an intimate project in which she accompanied her father on a journey back to his homeland in Iraq. The film won the Carte Blanche Emerging Talent Award at the Duisburg Film Week in 2016. Ayub's 20-minute narrative short "Boomerang" (Austria, 2018), a family drama, won Best Short Film at the Max Ophüls Film Festival.
Ayub's debut feature film "Sonne" ("Sun") — a coming-of-age story exploring themes of migration, religion, and cultural disorientation — was produced by Ulrich Seidl. It premiered in the Berlinale’s Encounters section in 2022, where it won the GWFF Best First Feature Award. The film went on to receive the Vienna Film Award at the Viennale and was nominated in the European Discovery category at the European Film Awards. Ayub herself earned a nomination for Best Director at the Austrian Romy Awards. In 2022, the International Short Film Festival Winterthur (Switzerland) honored her with a special section titled "Person in Focus."
With her second feature film "Mond" ("Moon"), an intercultural drama, Ayub was invited to compete at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, where she won the festival’s second-highest award, the Special Jury Prize, as well as the Europa Cinemas Label Award. The film had its German theatrical release in March 2024.