Mehrnoosh Fetrat is an Iranian filmmaker and cinematographer based in Chicago. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University and has previously taught at several institutions, including Drexel University, The College of New Jersey, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Temple University, and Saint Joseph's University. Mehrnoosh has written, produced, and directed three short films: War Game, America, and Copsi. Her work has been shown at over 50 film festivals and galleries across the U.S., Germany, Italy, Nigeria, Croatia, Turkey, Iraq, India, and the UK. Her films have appeared at events such as the Kurdish Film Festival in Berlin, Tehran International Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, Sundance Collab, UFVA (University Film and Video Association), Buffalo Film Festival, Philly Film Society, Trenton Film Festival, Ca' Foscari Film Festival, London Iranian Film Festival, High Falls Women's Film Festival, and the Adirondack Film Festival, among others. Her films are distributed by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC). They have also been streamed on Comcast Streampix, TUTV, and PrideTV. She has received several awards and nominations for her films, including Best Actor at the Artemis Film Festival and Best Film and Best Editing at the Diamond Screen Film Festival. She has also been nominated for the Princess Grace Award and the PEW Fellowship. Her work has been praised by figures such as Boots Riley and Golshifteh Farahani. In addition, she has served as a jury member for various festivals and conferences, including Chicago International Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film festival, UFVA, Onion City Film Festival, and Box Film Festival. Mehrnoosh is currently distributing two of her short films, Raw, Cooked, Burned and Unfinished: Kamran Shirdel. Raw, Cooked, Burned tells the story of an Iranian woman at three different stages of her life following the 1979 Revolution. The film explores the violence and oppression women have faced under the Islamic Republic. Mehrnoosh is also in post-production on the feature-length version of Unfinished: Kamran Shirdel, which examines the history and decline of post-revolutionary Iran through the lens of filmmaker Kamran Shirdel.
