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Born on the 22nd of March 1974 in Beirut, Hady Zaccak studied at IESAV film school (Institut d'Etudes Scéniques, Audiovisuelles et Cinématographiques/ Saint-Joseph University/Beirut).

He has a diploma in audiovisual studies (1997) and a Masters in cinema studies/ option film directing (2001).
He took part in workshops for film directing, editing and production at FEMIS (Paris-1996), INSAS (Brussels-1999) and HFF Konrad Wolf (Potsdam-2007).

Since 1997, he wrote and directed more than 20 documentaries, which have been broadcasted on several TV stations in Lebanon, the Arab world and Europe and presented/ awarded in several film festivals worldwide. Four of his films "Ya Omri-104 wrinkles", "a History Lesson", "Marcedes" and “Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr” had also a theatrical release in Beirut.

HZ uses documentary to revive History, record the present, preserve the memory and film the metamorphosis and stagnations.

After having written a book in French about the global history of Lebanese Cinema "Le cinéma libanais: itinéraire d'un cinéma vers l'inconnu" (1929-1996)"(Dar-el-Machreq -1997-Beirut), he continued exploring the history of cinema in Lebanon with with two documentaries "Lebanon through cinema" and "Cinema of war in Lebanon" (2003).

Through the years, he filmed the constant metamorphosis of Beirut "Beirut…Points of view" (2000) and "Taxi Beirut" (2011)) while also discovering other Arab capitals "Sindbad in Bagdad" (2003) and "Taxi Sana'a" (2012).

He investigated for the TV the place of religion and religious groups in the Middle East from Lebanon to Egypt and Iran "The Neo Missionaries" (2004)- "The Copts" (2004)- "The Shiites" (2005).

He studied the Palestinian cause with "1000 and 1000 Nights" (1999) and "Refugees for life" (2006) then documented the 2006 war in Lebanon and its social and environmental repercussions with 4 films: "The War of Peace" (2007)- "The Oil Spill in Lebanon" (2007) - "Shi'a Echoes from Lebanon" (2007) and "Sunni Echoes from Lebanon" (2008).
This also led him to explore the question of writing the Lebanese History with "a History Lesson" (2009) "Marcedes" (2011), "Honeymoon 58" (2013) and “Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr” (2015).

In 2017, he presented “Ya Omri” (“104 wrinkles”) where he tackled the theme of memory through the portrait of his grandmother.

After several years of research, HZ released a new book “The Last Film Screening” in 2021, exposing the social, political and cultural history of Tripoli through its cinemas.


His new feature documentary “Cilama” selected at the Cairo International Film Festival will be released in 2024.

His films received the following awards:

“Ya Omri” (“104 wrinkles”): Award of Merit at Docs Without Borders Film Festival 2017, USA / Jury Award, Malmo Arab Film Festival, Sweden, 2017/ Special Mention of the Jury, Asiatica Film Festival, Italy, 2017/ Best Cinematography, the Lebanese Movie Awards, 2018/ Silver Award, Festival International du Film Oriental de Geneve, Switzerland, 2018.

“Kamal Joumblatt, witness and martyr”: Francophone Trophy for the best feature documentary 2016/ Best Director, Best Music and Best Editing-Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide Awards 2016/ Special Mention-Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts, Egypt 2016

"Marcedes": Best Arab Documentary awarded by FIPRESCI (the International Federation of Film Critics)-Dubai International Film Festival 2011/ AlJazeera Documentary Channel Award for Best Long Film-AlJazeera International Documentary Festival-Doha 2012/ 2nd Best Documentary Prize-2nd International Meeting for Arab Cinema-Nabeul,Tunisia 2012/Discover Our World Award -7th Monaco Charity Film Festival, Monaco 2012/ Best original film at the Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival, 3rd edition (2015) , Asilah, Morocco.

"a History Lesson": Golden Hawk (1st prize) at the Arab Film Festival-Rotterdam 2010.

"The Oil Spill in Lebanon": 1st prize- European and Med Festival on Sea TV, Italy 2007

"1000 and 1000 Nights":1st prize-Docudays-Beirut 1999.

In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Zaccak is a lecturer-researcher at IESAV-Saint Joseph University, Beirut since 1998. He gives courses on film writing and directing, history of cinema and film genres. He also gives workshops on documentary and cinema culture in several parts of the Arab world (Lebanon-Jordan-Oman-Egypt) and Africa (ISMA, Benin)..

Hady Zaccak is also the founder of ZAC films.
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