Parisa Zandbaf was born in Tehran, Iran where her parents introduced her to classical music, performance, and Iranian cinema. With a BA from the University of Tehran (acceptance rate 10%), she moved to Europe to pursue a fully funded Erasmus Mundus Joint MA in Spain, The Netherlands, and Italy (acceptance rate 3%). Her interests in arts and philosophy led her to her Ph.D. studies in film aesthetics at the University of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, her independent films from fiction to documentaries and experimental reflect her global journey and academic insights. She has served as a jury member at the Amsterdam Independent Film Festival (2021) and the Changing Face International Film Festival (Sydney, Australia 2022), and as an academic judge on the art history and theory panel for the Global Undergraduate Awards, The Junior Noble Prize (Dublin, Ireland 2023). In 2023, she embarked on her second MA in Filmmaking in London fully funded by the Chevening scholarships (acceptance rate 1.9%). The Dutch-Iranian film director and Ph.D. candidate aims to continue transcending borders and provoking thought through her work.