{"id":3677,"date":"2026-05-08T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/?p=3677"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:00:38","slug":"688-ahmed-zayani-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/?p=3677","title":{"rendered":"688. Ahmed Zayani \u201cHope\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday, Film Folks!<\/p>\n

Ahmed Zayani wrote and directed \u201cHope,\u201d a horror short that was an Official Selection at both Sherman Oaks Film Festival 2025 and Film Invasion Lima 2026! In fact, Ahmed took home the Programmers Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking at SOFF 2025 and the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Short – Horror at FI-Lima 2026!\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 As I type this, I realize that even Ahmed\u2019s title gives away the depth of his film. Yes, it is a horror film, but the title \u201cHope\u201d certainly does suggest there is more to to this film than jump scares.<\/p>\n

Ahmed was not able to travel to either festival from his home in Bahrain.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I was delighted that the DIF podcast gave me the opportunity to have a quality conversation with this talented filmmaker!<\/p>\n

Follow Ahmed on Instagram at @theahmedzayani<\/a><\/p>\n

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _<\/p>\n

Discover Indie Film Links
\nDIF Podcast Website<\/a> – DIF Instagram<\/a> –\u00a0DIF BlueSky<\/a>
\nDiscover Indie Film Foundation (nonprofit for the arts) Website<\/a>
\nSherman Oaks Film Festival<\/a>
\nFilm Invasion Los Angeles<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Discover Film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Friday, Film Folks! Ahmed Zayani wrote and directed \u201cHope,\u201d a horror short that was an Official Selection at both Sherman Oaks Film Festival 2025 and Film Invasion Lima 2026! In fact, Ahmed took home the Programmers Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking at SOFF 2025 and the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Short – Horror at FI-Lima … <\/p>\n

Read More “688. Ahmed Zayani \u201cHope\u201d”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffhoward.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}