Studio Ragheb was founded by Lily Ekimian Ragheb (b. 1997) & Ahmed Tarek Ragheb (b. 1996) in 2021.
Ahmed T. Ragheb & Lily Ekimian Ragheb are a married experimental filmmaking duo based in Pittsburgh. Lily – American, Russian and Armenian – grew up between Washington, D.C., and Cairo, Egypt. Ahmed – Egyptian, Dutch and American – was born and raised in Cairo. Their films emphasize identity, place, feminism, cultural dislocation and domestic relationships. Their films are noted for their use of voiceover and mixed media. Their work has screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals, including Uppsala Short Film Festival (Nominated, Ingmar Bergman Award) and Athens Int’l Film & Video Festival as well as AFMI’s Arab Film Festival, Pittsburgh Shorts and Twin Cities Arab Film Festival.
ABOUT US
Festivals & Screenings
51st Athens International Film + Video Festival (Oscar-Qualifying), USA, 2024
26th RiverRun International Film Festival (Oscar-Qualifying), USA, 2024
40th Uppsala Short Film Festival (Oscar-Qualifying) , Sweden, 2021
Nominated, Ingmar Bergman Award
Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival, USA, 2023
Arab Film Series, USA, 2023
Arte East in collaboration with the Arab American National Museum & AFMI
27th AFMI Arab Film Festival, USA, 2023
Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, USA, 2023
Filmmaker’s Corner, WQED (PBS), USA 2023
Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival, USA, 2022
The Virtual Otherwise Festival, USA, 2022
Le Printemps des Artistes, Egypt, 2022
MENA Film Festival, Canada, 2021
Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival, USA, 2021
14th Southampton Film Week, UK, 2021
25th AFMI Arab Film Festival, USA, 2021
Co-presented by SF Urban Film Fest ‘21
Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, USA, 2021
Muslim Film Festival, Australia, 2021
Manchester Lift Off, UK, 2021
Essex DocFest, UK, 2020
13th Southampton Film Week, UK, 2020
Press
“Studio Ragheb explores Arab-American identity at AIFVF,” The Post Athens
“Short film showcasing Rust-Belt diversity to premiere at film festival,” The Athens News
“Local films are on the bill at the Pittsburgh Shorts festival,” NPR: 90.5 WESA
“Three Rivers, Pittsburgh Shorts festivals screen 12 days of indie films,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The Sailor brings an immigrant perspective to Pittsburgh’s film landscape,” The Pittsburgh City Paper
“An Interview with Studio Ragheb About Their Upcoming Project “She Sings,” Imagine Products, Inc. News
“Pittsburgh's character comes out in local filmmakers' festival shorts,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
“20 Arab Directors On Why They Made Their Films,” The Arab Film & Media Institute
Artist Talks & Conferences
Filmmaker Q&A (2024) at RiverRun International Film Festival | Winston-Salem, NC
Love & Diaspora (Artist Talk, 2023) at Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival | Minneapolis, MN
Filmmaker Q&A (2021, 2022, 2023) at Pittsburgh Shorts | Pittsburgh, PA
Between Fact and Ethnofiction: The Sensorial and the Archival (Conference, 2022) at the Virtual Otherwise Anthropology Conference | UPenn & American University in Cairo
Filmmakers Roundtable (2021) at MENA Film Festival | Vancouver, CA
Contact us