Rashid Masharawi is a self-taught filmmaker who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He is one of the few Palestinian directors who has shot features in the occupied territories. All his movies since his first feature Curfew (1990) and then Haifa (1996), which was the first Palestinian movie officially selected in Cannes, have received regular international selections, awards, and broadcasting. In 1996 he founded the Cinema Production and Distribution Center to reflect upon Palestinian cinematography (workshop, training, kids' festival, and mobile cinema). Many Palestinian filmmakers with an international career attended this institution. Today, Rashid Masharawi continues to train new generations of filmmakers through workshops and the involvement of young filmmakers in each of his films. Recently, he founded the Masharawi Fund for Films and Filmmakers in Gaza, which currently supports over twenty filmmakers in Gaza through the Ground Zero project.