Director
Hilal Baydarov
39 years · Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, USSR [now Azerbaijan] · 11 films
Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijani: Hiləl Baydarov; Russian: Хилал Байдаров; born 1987; Baku) is an Azerbaijan filmmaker, cinematographer and editor. During his high school years, he won the national championships of mathematics twice in 2004 and 2005. In 2011 he lead the Azerbaijani team at the informatics olympiad. After a master in computer sciences, Baydarov studied at the Sarajevo Film Academy under acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr before going on to make his feature debut HILLS WITHOUT NAMES (2018), which premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, the same year his documentary debut BIRTHDAY won the Docu Talent Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Since then Hilal has completed an award-winning trilogy of documentaries set in Katech Azerbaijan: WHEN THE PERSIMMONS GREW (2019) which won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary at the Sarajevo and the Interreligious Award and Special Jury Mention at Visions du réel; MOTHER AND SON (2019), which premiered in the main competition at IDFA; and NAILS IN MY BRAIN (2020) which premiered at Cinema du réel. His second feature film IN BETWEEN DYING (2020) became a participant in the man competition of the 77th Venice Film Festival.
Best known for
Filmography 11
Sermon to the Void
2026 · Director, Editor
Sermon to the Birds
2023 · Director, Writer
Sermon to the Fish
2022 · Director, Producer
Crane Lantern
2022 · Writer, Editor
In Between Dying
2021 · Director, Producer
On DocAlliance Films
Nails in My Brain
2020 · Actor, Director
When the Persimmons Grew
2019 · Actor, Director
Mother and Son
2019 · Actor, Director
One Day in Selimpasha
2018 · Director
Birthday
2018 · Director, Screenplay
Hills Without Names
2018 · Writer, Editor