Omar Amiralay (Arabic: عمر أميرالاي; 20 October 1944 – 5 February 2011) was a Syrian documentary film director and civil society activist.
[1] He studied in Paris at Théâtre de la Ville between 1966–7 and later at Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC), before returning to Syria in 1970.
In act of solidarity with Amiralay, Arab filmmakers Yousry Nasrallah, Annemarie Jacir, Nizar Hassan, Joana and Khalil Joreige, and Danielle Arbid subsequently pulled their films out of Competition to protest the festival's actions.
Another notable film was There Are So Many Things Still to Say, based on interviews with the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous recorded while the latter was dying of cancer.
His other films include a portrait of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, The Man with the Golden Soles, co-directed with Hala Al-Abdallah Yacoub and one of French academic and student of Middle Eastern society Michel Seurat, who died in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, On a Day of Ordinary Violence, My Friend Michel Seurat.... Omar Amiralay died on 5 February 2011, either from cardiac arrest[2] or a cerebral thrombosis.