Saodat Ismailova

Biography

Saodat Ismailova (1981, Uzbekistan) is a filmmaker and artist who lives and works between Tashkent and Paris. Her works have been presented in solo exhibitions at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing; Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam; the Center for Contemporary Art Tashkent; Tromsø Kunstforening; and the Kunstsammlungen & Museen Augsburg, among others. Ismailova’s works have also been featured in group shows at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Sharjah Biennal (2023); Para Site, Hong Kong; documenta fifteen, Kassel (2022); and Biennale Arte 2022 and 2013. Works by Ismailova are in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Almaty Museum of Arts; FRAC Corsica; and Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, among others. In 2022, she was awarded the Eye Prize for Art and Film, Amsterdam. She is the initiator of the educational program CCA Lab and the Tashkent Film Encounters; and she is the founder of the DAVRA research group, which is dedicated to studying, documenting, and disseminating Central Asian culture and knowledge.

Directed

1. 40 Days of Silence (2014) — Director
2. Aral, Fishing in an Invisible Sea (2004) — Director
3. Her Right (2020) — Director
4. Swan Lake (2025) — Director
5. Zukhra (2013) — Director
6. 18000 Worlds (2023) — Director
7. Bibi Seshanbe (2022) — Director
8. Stains of Oxus (2017) — Director
9. Chillpiq (2016) — Director
10. Two Horizons (2017) — Director
11. Melted into the Sun (2024) — Director
12. The Haunted (2017) — Director
13. Her Five Lives (2021) — Director
14. To the throat of Sun (2026) — Director