Wesleyan portrait of Yared  Zeleke

Yared Zeleke

Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies

yzeleke@wesleyan.edu

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Yared Zeleke

 
Yared Zeleke received his MFA from NYU in screenwriting and directing. Zeleke's first fiction feature, Lamb, was the first film from his country of origin, Ethiopia, to be officially selected at Cannes Film Festival in 2015. In addition to his own projects, Zeleke is a script consultant as well as a lecturer on both screenwriting and directing at Wesleyan University.
 
 
 
 

Yared Zeleke earned his MFA in Writing and Directing from New York University where his thesis short film, Lottery Boy, earned him an award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Agency in 2012.

Zeleke’s first feature, Lamb, screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2015. It was the first out of his native Ethiopia to be in the "Official Selection”. The film garnered positive reviews, including from the New York Times, BBC, CNN, PBS, Guardian, Financial Times, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel.

The North American premier for Lamb was at the Toronto International Film Festival. Variety magazine subsequently featured Zeleke among the “10 Screenwriters to Watch”. In 2016, Lamb made the shortlist for the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film Award.

Zeleke's second feature script, Sunbirds, was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and a San Francisco Film Society grant. The Sundance Institute is mentoring Zeleke through its FilmTwo Initiative. In addition to his own projects, Zeleke is a script consultant as well as a university lecturer on both screenwriting and directing.

 
 
 

Academic Affiliations

Office Hours

 

 

Please email me for appointments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thank youu
 
 
 

Courses

Spring 2024
FILM 454 - 01
Screenwriting

FILM 458 - 02
Short Screenplay

Fall 2024
FILM 454 - 01
Screenwriting

FILM 458 - 02
Short Screenplay