Gaya Jiji is a Syrian director born in Damascus in 1979. Holder of a master's degree in directing from the University of Paris VIII, the young woman obtained a grant from the script development fund, awarded by the Amiens festival. She has already directed several short films, which have been acclaimed by the critics. The last one, entitled Morning, noon, evening... and morning, released in 2011 and lasting 19 minutes, is touring festivals around the world.

In 2014, she is invited to the Cannes Film Festival by the Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde. She then stays in France thanks to obtaining an artistic visa. She has just spent two years in Syria, close to the war that ravages her country. Following this experience, the young woman would like to direct her first feature film. Recluse at home to be spared from bullets, she spends her time writing, strongly inspired by the dramatic environment that surrounds her. Like many other Syrians, Gaya Jiji is indeed strongly marked by the conflict. According to her, art represents the only way out, the escape that allows one to survive the horror.

In 2016, she received the Women in Motion Award from the Kering Foundation at the Cannes Film Festival. In May 2018, her film Mon Tissu Préféré was selected for the Festival Un Certain Regard in Cannes. It is in the running for the Caméra d'or.