Niki Kohandel


(b. 2000, FR) is a visual artist, filmmaker and educator based in London. Her practice is nourished by intergenerational transmissions, Farsi oral traditions and engagement with broader sonic histories. She employs film, sound, printmaking and expanded drawing processes, working in collaboration with family members, friends and young people to re-write personal and collective mythologies. 
Her practice sits in a variety of contexts beyond galleries and film spaces, including schools, radio waves and community centres. Since 2021, she has been working with Shahre Farang, facilitating both regular and one-off workshops in bridging hotels. The collective supports children and young people who have newly arrived in the UK through multi-disciplinary story-telling sessions.

Her work has been presented in a solo exhibition at LUX Moving Image, London (2025) and in group shows at Dar Bellarj, Marrakech; Bow Arts (2026); Cubitt Gallery, London (2025); Metroland Studios, London (2024); Greatorex Street Gallery, London; Projet Casa, Tioh- tià:ke/Montreal (2023); The Toy Museum, London (2022); Octagon Gallery, London; Noorderlicht Photo, Groeningen; Gulf Photo Plus, Dubaï (2021); Lethaby Gallery, London (2019). 

Her films have been screened extensively in the UK and abroad in festivals, galleries and film spaces in- cluding: Millenium Film Workshop, New York (2026); Swedenborg Film Festival, London; LE18, Marrakech (2025); Harkat, Mumbai; Art Station, Samarakand; Lago Film Festival, Revine Lago; Open City Docu mentary Festival, London; Kunsthal, Ghent; Experimenta India, Bangalore; University of Kent, Canter- bury (2024); BFI Film Festival, London; Kulturbunker, Köln-Mülheim; Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield; not/ nowhere, London; Sinematek, Istanbul; Vienna Shorts, Vienna; Bloomsbury Theatre, London; Flying Broom Festival, Ankara; Porto Femme International Film Festival, Porto; 35th International Short Film Festival, Dresden; The Nordic House, Reykjavik; Barbican Cinema, London; From Rosa to Simone Film Festival, Tbilissi; Anthology Film Archives, New York; ICA, London; Cine Humberto Mauro Mais, Belo Hori- zonte (2023); SOAS University, London; London Migration Film Festival, London; DOCUMENTARIST, Istan- bul; London Short Film Festival, London (2022); Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York; Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021).

In 2025, she was part of videoclub/FLAMIN’s Selected 15, a touring programme of new artist’s film and video nominated by the 2024 Jarman Award shortlist. She is the recipient of several prizes including the EastEast Film Award (2024); Rosa Morison Memorial Award (2023); Prankerd Jones Scholarship; Herbert Seaborn Award (2022); Sue Jamieson Memorial Award (2021).
She holds a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.


For vimeo links, screenings and other inquiries please email.

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NIKI KOHANDEL 

(b. 2000, FR) is a visual artist, filmmaker and educator based in London. Her practice is nourished by intergenerational transmissions, Farsi oral traditions and engagement with broader sonic histories. She employs film, sound, printmaking and expanded drawing processes, working in collaboration with family members, friends and young people to re-write personal and collective mythologies.

Her work has been presented in a solo exhibition at LUX Moving Image, London (2025) and in group shows at Dar Bellarj, Marrakech; Bow Arts (2026); Cubitt Gallery, London (2025); Metroland Studios, London (2024); Greatorex Street Gallery, London; Projet Casa, Tioh- tià:ke/Montreal (2023); The Toy Museum, London (2022); Octagon Gallery, London; Noorderlicht Photo, Groeningen; Gulf Photo Plus, Dubaï (2021); Lethaby Gallery, London (2019). 

Her films have been screened extensively in the UK and abroad in festivals, galleries and film spaces in- cluding: Millenium Film Workshop, New York (2026); Swedenborg Film Festival, London; LE18, Marrakech (2025); Harkat, Mumbai; Art Station, Samarakand; Lago Film Festival, Revine Lago; Open City Docu- mentary Festival, London; Kunsthal, Ghent; Experimenta India, Bangalore; University of Kent, Canter- bury (2024); BFI Film Festival, London; Kulturbunker, Köln-Mülheim; Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield; not/ nowhere, London; Sinematek, Istanbul; Vienna Shorts, Vienna; Bloomsbury Theatre, London; Flying Broom Festival, Ankara; Porto Femme International Film Festival, Porto; 35th International Short Film Festival, Dresden; The Nordic House, Reykjavik; Barbican Cinema, London; From Rosa to Simone Film Festival, Tbilissi; Anthology Film Archives, New York; ICA, London; Cine Humberto Mauro Mais, Belo Hori- zonte (2023); SOAS University, London; London Migration Film Festival, London; DOCUMENTARIST, Istan- bul; London Short Film Festival, London (2022); Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York; Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021).

In 2025, she was part of videoclub/FLAMIN’s Selected 15, a touring programme of new artist’s film and video nominated by the 2024 Jarman Award shortlist. She is the recipient of several prizes including the EastEast Film Award (2024); Rosa Morison Memorial Award (2023); Prankerd Jones Scholarship; Herbert Seaborn Award (2022); Sue Jamieson Memorial Award (2021). She holds a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London.


For vimeo links and screening inquiries please email.
For Shahr-e-Farang
please email shahrefarang.project@gmail.com

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The Sparrow is Free
2021, 14’ - Hi8 film


In an empty house, a young woman hears a voice. The tales it evokes lead her to recreate scenes from her grandmother’s past life.  

Through a window into the life of the filmmaker's grandmother, Kohandel's short interview-film explores gender roles in early 20th-century Iran. As a young girl, marriage to her older cousin leads to years of control and frustration. Rebelling against her husband, she eventually relocates to France with her sons, building a new life. As she voices her own story, the film weaves her experiences together into a broader narrative of self-determination. She carves out her independence in Paris and finds comfort in the everyday. A simple kind of happiness follows, the sparrow is free.

Voice: Paridokht Iranpour
Camera: Niki Kohandel & Mitra Rezaei
Editing: Niki Kohandel



گنجشک آزاد است 

۱۴۰۱

۱۴' - Hi8


از مصاحبه فیلمساز نیکی کهندل با مادربزرگ خود، شرایط زنان ایرانی در اوائل قرن بیستم را میتوان لمس کرد. در هفده سالگی ، این دختر نوجوان مجبور به ازدواج با پسر عمه خود می‌شود. همسری که سالیان سال او را زیر سلطه خود قرار میدهد و سرانجام ، این پیوند را به ناکامی و طلاق می کشاند. در نهایت ، برای فرار از این موقعیت و به امید ساختن زندگی جدید ، به همراه دو فرزندش ، تصمیم مهاجرت به فرانسه را می‌گیرد. با شنیدن داستانهای گوناگونش ، پی می بریم که چگونه می‌توان با تصمیم و انتخابی تازه ، فصلی جدید در زندگی خود را آغاز کنیم. در پاریس ، آن .خوشبختی ساده ای که همواره در جستجویش بود را پیدا می کنند. گنجشک آزاد است





Past screenings:

8th August 2026: Lichtspiel, curated by Ehsan Bamshad and Hadi Sadeghi, Tehran. 

7th August 2026: Diyidor Shirin, maqaal collective, Tashkent. 

13 + 15th June 2026: DOCUMENTARIST Istanbul.

8th May 2025: LE18 Marrakech, in conversation with Ines Yahiaoui.

17th December 2024, NIDA : A series of invitations / alarms / calls for action, curated by Collectif Faire-Part, Kunsthal Ghent, Ghent.

5th December 2024, ‘Experimenta India’, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore.

17th August 2024, Art Station Samarkand, ‘Janub Shamoli Festival’ by maqaal collective, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

2nd July 2024, Popup Emaus, Lisbon.

3rd July 2024, ‘On Listening’, three short films by Niki Kohandel at Other Cinemas, Metroland Studios.

18th April 2024, Migrant Voices in Contemporary European Cinema, University of Kent.

11th-25th January 2024, ’Interiors’ by EastEast Films, online.

7th December 2023, ‘Cinema Farhangian’,
Kulturbunker Köln-Mülheim.

12th November 2023, ‘Artists for Woman, Life, Freedom’ curated by Farah Dailami, Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield. 

14th & 23 May + 21st June 2023, Sinematek Istanbul.

5th June 2023, ‘Films From Iran, For Iran’, Vienna Shorts 2023, METRO Kino, Vienna.

25th May 2023, ‘Tracing Entanglements’ + Q&A with Isral Al-Kassi - Festival of the Moving Image, 
curated by Tape Collective, Bloomsbury Theatre, UCL, London.

Flying Broom Festival, 2023, Ankara.

18th-23rd April, Porto Femme International Film Festival, Porto.

18th, 19th & 21st April, ‘From Anywhere’, curated by Maryam Tafakory, 35th International Short Film Festival Dresden.

21st March 2023, Just Another Year: Persian New Year, The Nordic House Reykjavik. 

9th March 2023, How Dare You Have Such a Rubish Wish + The Sparrow is Free, Barbican Cinema, London

3rd-5th March 2023, From Rosa to Simone Film Festival, Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group, Tbilissi. 

3+5th February 2023, Films from Iran for Iran: Intergenerational Transmissions, Anthology Film Archives, New York.

28th January 2023, Maryam Tafakory: Rememberings, London Short Film Festival, ICA London.

14th December 2022, ‘Films from Iran for Iran’ + Q&A with Katayoun Jalilipour & Elhum Shakerifar, programmed by Another Gaze, ICA London.

4th December- January 2023, ‘Films from Iran for Iran’, Another Screen/Another Gaze.
Programme reviewed in:

- Libération - «Films From Iran for Iran», flammes vies et libertés’ by Sandra Onana

-5Harfliler - “İran İçin İran’dan Filmler” Seçkisinden Feminist/Kuir Birkaç Kuple by Lara Özlen
15th November 2022, ‘Only the Voice Remains’, curated by Parwana Haydar, screening with Neelofar Abrahimi’s I Remember, SOAS University.

17th November 2022, Film Diary NYC ‘Almost There’, Millenium Film Workshop.

26th November 2022, ‘Migration and Femininity’, London Migration Film Festival, The Ritzy Cinema.

July 2022, on-demand, Cryptofiction.

29th - 30th June 2022, DOCUMENTARIST İstanbul Belgesel Günleri- Istanbul Doc Days, Institut Français.

18th - 30 th June 2022, GODSPEED: 18 short films by a new generation of diary filmmakersA gallery group show in collaboration with Millennium Film Workshop, curated by Nick Ramsay and Saint Piñero.

22nd Jan 2022, Root/25 Micro-film screening for Restless Beings.

21st Jan 2022, London Short Film Festival, ICA London. 
‘New Shorts Documentary: The Promise of Hapiness?’ curated by Miranda Mungai.

18th Nov 2021, Girls in Film at House of Vans, London ‘It’s the family you choose’, curated by Raheela Suleman.

5th Oct 2021, Conch art collective presents ‘3 films by Niki Kohandel’ at SOAS University, London

Jul 2021, streaming on shashamovies, ‘CLOSE CUTS: 23 films around local cultural traditions’