# Jessica Beshir

Jessica Beshir (born 1988) is a Mexican documentary filmmaker. After directing several documentary shorts, she made her feature film debut with Faya Dayi (2021) which she won several awards for.

## Biography

Jessica Beshir was born in 1988 in Mexico City, the daughter of a Mexican mother and an Ethiopian father who was studying medicine in the country. Due to the government calling for the repatriation of the diaspora following the Ethiopian Civil War, her father brought the family to Harar, Ethiopia, where Beshir grew up, and worked as a surgeon in the country. When she was about sixteen, the family fled Ethiopia and returned to Mexico when her father got a scholarship. She obtained her BA in film studies and literature from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Her documentary short film He Who Dances on Wood (2016) is about a man, Fred Nelson, who practices tap dancing on a block of wood in a tunnel in Prospect Park, an urban park in Brooklyn. In 2017, the film was awarded Best Documentary Short at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Jury Award at the Anchorage International Film Festival. Her documentary short Hairat (2017) is about Abba Yussuf, the "Hyena Man of Harar" who came to international attention through the documentary series Planet Earth II. Hairat premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and it was shown at the 2018 Garden State Film Festival.
In 2021, she made her feature film directorial debut with Faya Dayi. She won a American Society of Cinematographers Documentary Award, the Independent Spirit Awards Truer Than Fiction Award, and two Visions du Réel awards for the film, which was also shortlisted for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film and aired on POV on 29 August 2022. In 2024, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film and Video.
Beshir lives in Brooklyn.

## Filmography

| Year | Work | Note |
| 2016 | He Who Dances on Wood | As director; documentary short |
| 2017 | Hairat | As director; documentary short |
| 2017 | Heroin | As director, screenwriter, executive producer, producer, and additional cinematography; documentary short |
| 2017 | The Gift | Television miniseries |
| 2018 | Kings | |
| 2021 | Faya Dayi | As director, executive producer, producer, writer, cinematographer; documentary feature film |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Results |
| 2017 | Anchorage International Film Festival | Jury Award | He Who Dances on Wood | Won |
| 2017 | Edmonton International Film Festival | Best Documentary Short | He Who Dances on Wood | Won |
| 2017 | Sundance Film Festival | Short Film Grand Jury Prize | Hairat | Nominated |
| 2021 | Academy Awards | Best Documentary Feature Film | Faya Dayi | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Black Reel Award | Best Foreign Language Film | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Cinema Eye Honors | Outstanding Non-Fiction Feature | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Cinema Eye Honors | Outstanding Direction | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Cinema Eye Honors | Outstanding Cinematography | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Cinema Eye Honors | Outstanding Debut | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | Best Cinematography | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Critics' Choice Documentary Awards | Best First Documentary Feature | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Gotham Awards | Best Documentary | Faya Dayi | Nominated |
| 2021 | Visions du Réel | Grand Jury Prize | Faya Dayi | Won |
| 2021 | Visions du Réel | Fipresci International Critics Award | Faya Dayi | Won |
| 2022 | American Society of Cinematographers Awards | Documentary Award | Faya Dayi | Won |
| 2022 | Independent Spirit Awards | The Truer Than Fiction Award | Faya Dayi | Won |