Arash T. Riahi

Biography

Co-founded the film production company Golden Girls Filmproduktion (www.goldengirls.at) in 2007. He is the co-president of the Austrian Academy of Film together with actress Verena Altenberger since 2021. His body of work as a director & producer won more than 200 awards and comprises various short and experimental films ('Mississippi'), documentaries, including 'Exile Family Movie' (Winner of Leipzig Filmfestival) or the cross-media project 'Everyday Rebellion' (CPH:DOX Audience Award among others) that he made with his brother Arman. His first fiction film 'For a Moment Freedom' was Austria's candidate for the Academy Awards in 2010. Since 2010, he is also working as a dramatic advisor for the Creative Europe script-development programs EAVE, Sources 2, Berlinale Talents or Doc-Incubator. He teaches at the Vienna film academy about documentary filmstyles. Arash’s critically acclaimed second feature film "Oscar & Lilli - Where no one knows us", represented by Les Films Du Losange, won more than 20 awards and was Austria’s internationally most successful film of 2020. The last films he produced or co-produced were "Perla" (Tiger Competition Rotterdam 2025), "How to be normal"(Berlinale 2025), "Girls & Gods (CPH:DOX 2025), "The last Ambassador" (Hot Docs 2025), “The Witness” (Winner of Venice Filmfestival, Orizzonti Extra Section 2024), „Eismayer" (2022, winner of Venice Critics week), "Born in Evin" (2020, Winner of Berlinale best Documentary award), "Once upon a time in Venezuela" (2020 Sundance Competition) and „Solo" (2019, Cannes Acid competition).