Sofia Djama

Sofia Djama was born in Oran, Algeria. and grew up in Béjaïa. In 1999, she went to Algiers to study letters and foreign languages, the city which she settled in later. She then worked in the advertising field and simultaneously writes short stories, one of which she will shoot a few years later her short film: Mollement, un samedi matin (2012) the story of a rapist with broke erection. she won two prizes at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2012 for it.

Her 2017 feature film debut is The Blessed (2017) (Les Bienheureux), a coming-of-age story set in Algiers in 2008, starring Nadia Kaci and Sami Bouajila. The movie had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and was one of only two films there from African directors. it won three awards in the Orizzonti section (Horizons) section of the Venice Film Festival, with the Best Actress award going to Lyna Khoudri, and the Brian Award for "best champions human rights, democracy, pluralism and freedom of thought", and the Lina Mangiacapre Award for a film which "changes the image of women in the cinema". and In January 2018, with her film "Les Bienheureux" she participated in the 19th edition of the Black Movie in Geneva, Switzerland where she won the public prize.