Hilal Baydarov is a writer and director from Baku, Azerbaijan. During his high school years, he won the national championships of mathematics twice in 2004 and 2005. In 2011 he lead the Azerbaijani team at the informatics olympiad. After a master in computer sciences, Baydarov studied at the Sarajevo Film Academy under acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr before going on to make his feature debut HILLS WITHOUT NAMES (2018), which premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, the same year his documentary debut BIRTHDAY won the Docu Talent Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Since then Hilal has completed an award-winning trilogy of documentaries set in Katech Azerbaijan: WHEN THE PERSIMMONS GREW (2019) which won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary at the Sarajevo and the Interreligious Award and Special Jury Mention at Visions du réel; MOTHER AND SON (2019), which premiered in the main competition at IDFA; and NAILS IN MY BRAIN (2020) which premiered at Cinema du réel. His IN BETWEEN DYING (2020), World Premiered in Competition at VENICE FILM FESTIVAL and CRANE LANTERN (2021) in TOKYO IFF.

SERMON TO THE FISH is the first of his WAR TALES’ Trilogy.

SERMON TO THE FISH

(International Sales: ASIAN SHADOWS)

2022, Drama, Color, 89’

•  Locarno Film Festival 2022

            International Competition

             Junior Jury Awards: Environment Award

            Pardo Verde WWF Awards: Special Mention

• Busan IFF 2022

            A Window on Asian Cinema Section​

• Ji.hlava IDFF 2022

            Constellations Section

• Cottbus IFF 2022

            Feature Film Competition

• Pingyao IFF 2023

            Gala 

• Trieste IFF 2023

            Off the Beaten Screen Section 

•  Beijing IFF 2023, China,

            Panorama

​

CRANE LANTERN

2021, Drama, Color, 101’

• Tokyo International Film Festival 2021

            Competition, Best Artistique Contribution Award

 

IN BETWEEN DYING

2020, Drama, Color, 88’

• Venice Film Festival 2020

• Toronto International Film Festival 2020 - TIFF Industry Selects

• Moscow International Film Festival 2020

• Tokyo FILMeX 2020

• Kolkata International Film Festival 2021

• Trieste Film Festival 2021

• International Film Festival of Kerala 2021

• Hong Kong International Film Festival 2021

 

NAIL IN MY BRAIN

2020, Documentary, 80’

• Cinéma du Réel 2020

• Black Canvas Contemporary Film Festival 2020

• Doclisboa 2020

• Trieste Film Festival 2021

 

WHEN THE PERSIMMONS GREW

2019, Documentary, 118’

• Visions du Réel Film Festival 2019

• Sarajevo Film Festival 2019

• Batumi International Art-House Film Festival 2019

• Doclisboa 2019

• Carthage Film Festival 2019

• VIENNALE Film Festival 2019

• Cottbus Film Festival 2019

• Nantes Three Continents Festival 2019

• IDFA 2019

• Torino Film Festival 2019

• International Film Festival of Kerala 2019

• Transcinema Festival Internacional de No-ficción 2019

• This Human World 2019

• Hainan International Film Festival 2019

• ArtDocFest 2019

• The Centre for Fine Arts/Bozar 2020

• Taiwan International Documentary Festival 2020

• Cinéma du Réel 2021

 

MOTHER AND SON

2019, Documentary, 120’

• Trieste Film Festival 2019

• IDFA 2019

 

ONE DAY IN SELIMPASHA

2018, Documentary, 64’

• Jihlava International Film Festival 2018

• CinéDOC-Tbilisi 2019

 

BIRTHDAY

2018, Documentary, 63’

• Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival 2018

• Bozar 2018

• New Horizon Film Festival 2019

 

HILLS WITHOUT NAMES

2018, Drama, 93’

• Montreal World Film Festival 2018

• Cottbus Film Festival 2018

• Fajr Film Festival 2018