Kurdwin Ayub was born in Iraq in 1990. Currently, she works as a director, screenwriter, and video and performance artist in Vienna, Austria. Studies in Painting and Animation with Christian Ludwig Attersee and Judith Eisler at the University for Applied Arts Vienna from 2008 to 2013. Since 2011, studies in Performing Arts with Carola Dertnig at the University of Fine Arts Vienna. Her shorts have been shown and awarded at numerous international film festivals. In 2013, Ayub was awarded the Vienna Independent Short Newcomer Prize, in 2011 and 2012, she received the Viennale Mehrwert Short Film Prize. In 2012, she presented a series of her short films at the Viennale. Her feature documentary Paradise! Paradise! – direction, screenplay and cinematography by Ayub – won Best Camera at the Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film, the New Waves Non Fiction Award at the Sevilla Festival de Cine Europeo and the Carte Blanche Prize of the Duisburger Filmwoche in 2016.