Baghdad -- On Sunday, Assyrian filmmaker Frank Gilbert won the award for Best Cinematography at the Baghdad International Film Festival (BIFF) for his feature film Son of Ashur. For Gilbert, the recognition represents more than a personal milestone. It marks the emergence of an Assyrian cinema determined to grapple with themes of identity, memory, and belonging in a changing Iraq.

Critics praised Son of Ashur for its striking visual language and its delicate attention to everyday details, calling it a breath of fresh air in a national film scene eager to move beyond rigid formulas. The film's intimate yet powerful storytelling has been hailed as proof that Iraqi cinema can embrace authenticity and diverse voices while remaining deeply rooted in local experiences.

"This award is not just for me," Gilbert said after the ceremony. "It is for all the young Assyrians who dream of telling their stories through film. Our voices matter, and this recognition shows that there is space for us in the cultural life of Iraq."

The recognition carries weight far beyond a single award. For decades, the Assyrian community -- descendants of some of Beth Nahrin's (Mesopotamia) oldest civilizations -- have struggled to preserve their culture in the face of conflict, displacement, and marginalization. Film has become a powerful way to engage with questions of survival and identity.

While Iraqi cinema has produced internationally recognized directors such as Mohamed al-Daradji, Assyrian voices have often been underrepresented on screen. In recent years, however, filmmakers from these communities have begun to claim more visibility. Independent projects in Iraq, by the diaspora in Europe and the United States, and short films produced by young Assyrian students have started to build the foundation of a national cinema.

This emerging movement seeks to tell stories that blend personal memory with collective history: the experience of exile, the fragility of endangered languages, and the struggle to remain connected to ancestral homelands. Documentaries exploring Church traditions, short films about displacement, and narratives centered on intergenerational memory are now circulating at film festivals in Sweden, Germany, the United States, and Australia, where large Assyrian communities live.

Gilbert's Son of Ashur, with its evocative images and quiet yet resonant storytelling, has been widely interpreted as a statement of cultural survival. The film's title invokes Ashur, the ancient Assyrian capital and a symbol of continuity, linking the struggles of today's youth to the resilience of a people whose roots extend thousands of years into Mesopotamian history.

By winning one of BIFF's most prestigious awards, Gilbert has brought visibility not only to his own work but also to a generation of Assyrian filmmakers who are beginning to see cinema as an arena where cultural memory can be preserved, challenged, and renewed.