Amel Guellaty
Amel Guellaty, born in 1988, is a Tunisian director, screenwriter and photographer based in Los Angeles. After law studies at the Sorbonne, she turned to cinema, assisting on films by Olivier Assayas, Raja Amari, and Abdellatif Kechiche. Her debut feature Where the Wind Comes From had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025. She also works as a commercial director for Cartier, Dior, IWC, and Montblanc.
Amel Guellaty
Los Angeles
Following her law studies at the Sorbonne, Guellaty embarked on a career in cinema, initially serving as an assistant on feature films in France including Apres Mai by Olivier Assayas, Foreign Body by Raja Amari, and La Blessure by Abdellatif Kechiche. In 2014 she enrolled at the International Center of Photography in New York and began working for several fashion brands. She held her first solo exhibition, Voyage, that same year, and has since participated in several group exhibitions. She also works as a set photographer on films, including The Love of Men by Mehdi Ben Attia.
Amel Guellaty I have a lot of influences. Different kinds of photographers that I admire and follow, from Diane Arbus to David Bellemerre, contemporary photographers like Alex Prager or classic ones like Cartier-Bresson. I love cinema too. Stanley Kubrick and Tarantino are my biggest influences. Jean-Luc Godard said "Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second." I am passionate about images in general, aesthetically pleasing images or really powerful press photos. It is a question of feeling.
Amel Guellaty Kate Moss is the biggest fashion icon of our century, shot by everyone from Helmut Newton to Mario Testino. But my biggest influence in my private life and in fashion is my sister Sofia Guellaty, a fashion journalist and an Arab independent and free woman who lives and works in the Arab world. She is exactly the kind of woman who inspires my world.
Amel Guellaty Every time I shoot I learn something different from the people I work with, from the model to the stylist or even the assistant. Even when I am the assistant, it is really interesting to see how the photographer works. My Zizanie shoot was very interesting because I worked with really talented and creative people and it was a really fun day. When I have fun that typically means the results will end up really good.
Amel Guellaty Arab women are my biggest inspiration because they live in a complex world where their femininity is difficult to express, where the body is taboo and the mind has to be closed. I am working on a project that will explore freedom and identity.
"Arab women are my biggest inspiration because they live in a complex world where their femininity is difficult to express."
Amel Guellaty
Where the Wind Comes From · 2025
World premiere Sundance Film Festival · World Cinema Dramatic · Courtesy the director
Alongside her personal and documentary work, Guellaty has directed commercial campaigns for prestigious brands in the Middle East and internationally.
Amel Guellaty
