Originally a student of physics and mathematics at American University in Beirut (AUB), Bizri found himself increasingly drawn to a career in film, eventually establishing a film club at AUB. Eager to obtain film training, the 19-year-old Bizri moved to Boston to study film at Boston University, from which he received his undergraduate degree, and completed post-graduate work at Harvard's Carpenter Center for the Arts and NYU's Tisch School before receiving his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.