Born in 1961 in Schönaich near Stuttgart, Germany. She studied fine arts, cinema studies and Middle Eastern studies and was a lecturer in cinema studies at the American University in Cairo. She has worked as a creative consultant for, among others, the Dubai Film Connection and al-Rawi Screenwriters' Lab. She is also on the selection board of the World Cinema Fund (Berlinale) and has been the head of studies for the Documentary Campus MENA Program, a training program for Arab documentary filmmakers. Viola Shafik lives in Germany and Egypt and works as a filmmaker and film scholar.

Source: 64. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)