Issa Touma was in residency in February-March 2026, kindly supported by Artists at Risk. Issa Touma is a film director, photographer and has been the curator of Le Pont Gallery and Aleppo Photo Festival for 12 years. His work can be found in several international collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, FOMU Museum in Antwerpen and David Collection in Copenhagen.
2016 was a special year for Issa Touma. His film ‘9 Days From My Window in Aleppo’ won the European Film Award for Best Short Film; the Best Short Film at the London Film Festival and the Tribute Award at the International Short Film Festival in New York. The “9 Days…” movie has been shown in more than 60 festivals and around 50 cultural activities around the world.
His new film ‘Greetings from Aleppo’ opened the IFFR (International Film Festival of Rotterdam – Jan 2017). and in 2017, ‘Greetings from Aleppo’ won DIG AWARD – (Italy ) and DIRECTORSNL AWARD 2018 (NL).
Issa Touma most recently exhibited at the Artists at Risk Pavilion – “Artists. Risk. Humans. Rights.” on the occasion of the Venice Biennale with the support of UNESCO. He has also won Paris Short Film Award 2023 – Jury Award for the movie: ‘Young in Aleppo’.
Photo by Mreethmandir Roy