OSSAMA BAWARDI (PRODUCER)

Ossama Bawardi is an independent producer working in Palestine and Jordan. Bawardi began his film career in various productions including Paradise Now by Hany Abu Assad, Whispering Embers by Ali Nassar and Salt of this Sea by Annemarie Jacir. Paradise Now was the first Palestinian film to be nominated for an Academy Award and Salt of this Seapremiered in Cannes and was the first feature directed by a Palestinian woman.

Salt of this Sea not only brought Bawardi and Jacir together but notably also brought together Jacir and actor Saleh Bakri for the first time in Saleh Bakri’s first film roles launching what would become a regular and anticipated collaboration. 

Bawardi produced Jacir’s next feature film When I Saw You which won Best Asian Film at the Berlin International Film. The film’s production was noted for being entirely Arab financed, becoming amongst the first in the region to rely almost entirely on local private financing. He produced Horizon, In Overtime, and Mare Nostrum. He also directed and produced the short film Haneen. He is the line producer of (No) Laughing Matter, A Stone's Throw from Prison as well as numerous other films both fiction and documentary. 

In 2010, he officially joined Philistine Films, the production company founded by Annemarie Jacir to support distinctive visions, build a local crew, and which has established itself at the forefront of independent cinema in the region. Bawardi expanded the company to offer production services and coproductions with international producers.

Bawardi line produced Amin Matalqa's The Rendezvous starring Stana Katic, Mai Masri's 3,000 Nights and Barbara Eder's Thank you for Bombing. He produced Jacir’s Wajib, winner of thirty-six international awards including Best Film in Mar Del Plata, Dubai, Amiens, Washington DC and Kerala. Bawardi is also an executive producer on The Mountain by Faysal Atrash, The Translator by Syrian filmmakers Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, and the highly anticipated Huda’s Salon by Hany Abu Assad as well as Kazoz by Amira Diab and A Gaza Weekend by Basil Khalil. Most recently, he produced the Oscar nominated and BAFTA winner film The Present by Farah Nabulsi. Bawardi is a member of the EAVE Producer’s Network and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy.

ANNEMARIE JACIR (WRITER & DIRECTOR)

Annemarie Jacir has been working in independent cinema since 1998 and has written, directed and produced a number of award-winning films. Two of her films have premiered as Official Selections in Cannes, one in Berlin and in Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, Toronto, and Telluride. All three of her feature films were selected as Palestine’s Oscar Entry for Foreign Language Film. Her short film, like twenty impossibles was the first Arab short film to ever be an official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival and went on to be a Student Academy Awards Finalist, winning more than 15 awards at International festivals including Best Film at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films, Chicago International Film Festival, Institute Du Monde Arabe Biennale, Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, and IFP/New York. like twenty impossibles was named one of the ten best films of 2003 by Gavin Smith of Film Comment Magazine (Editors Choice).

In 2007, Jacir shot the first feature film by a Palestinian woman director, the acclaimed Salt of this Sea, the story of a working-class American woman whose parents were Palestinian refugees, making her first return to her family's homeland. Her second work to debut in Cannes Film Festival, Salt of this Sea, went on to win the FIPRESCI Critics Award, and garnered fourteen other international awards including Best Film in Milan. The film was Palestine's submission to the 81st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and received many other awards and nominations including winning the Muhr Arab Award for Best Screenplay at the Dubai International Film Festival, a Cinema in Motion award at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival and a FIPRESCI award. Salt of this Sea starred poet Suheir Hammad alongside Saleh Bakri in his first role on screen.

Her second feature When I Saw You won Best Asian Film at the Berlinale, Best Arab Film in Abu Dhabi and Best Film in Amiens, Phoenix, and Olympia, and garnered a nomination at the Asian Pacific Screen Awards. Working in both fiction and documentary, other films include Until When, A Few Crumbs for the Birds, which she also shot as cinematographer, and experimentala Post Oslo History. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema.

In 2011, renown Chinese director Zhang Yimou selected her to be his first protégée as part of the Rolex Arts Initiative. With a commitment to teaching, training and hiring locally, Annemarie also curates, actively promoting independent cinema in the region. Founder of Philistine Films, she collaborates regularly as an editor, screenwriter and occasional producer with fellow filmmakers. She teaches screenwriting and works as a freelance editor as well as consultant. 

Her most recent film Wajib (2017) won 36 international awards including Best Film in Mar Del Plata, Dubai, Amiens, DC Film Festival and Kerala and jury mention at the London BFI Festival.

In 2018, she returned to the Cannes Film Festival, this time joining the Un Certain Regard Jury, presided by Puerto Rican/American actor Benicio del Toro. In 2020, she was part of the Competition jury of the Berlin International Film Festival, presided by English actor Jeremy Irons

She is a member of the Asian Pacific Screen Academy and a board member of Palestine Cinema Days. She has taught at Columbia University, Bethlehem University, and Birzeit University and in refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. Annemarie is also a mentor for eQuinoxe Screenwriting Lab and Doha Film Institute.

She is co-founder of the newly established artist-run space Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art & Research in her hometown of Bethlehem, Palestine. She has served as a jury member to numerous festivals including in Cannes (2018) and Berlinale (2020), is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as well as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

IBRAHEEM SHAHEEN (LINE PRODUCER)

Ibraheem Shaheen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Digital Film Making from Middlesex University in the U.K. He has extensive experience as a Line Producer & Production Manager, including working with Ai Weiwei on his Oscar nominated documentary Human Flow, Al‐Jazeera English, National Geographic, Warner Brothers, Apple TV+, TRT World, MBC, Channel Nine Australia’s most reputable show: 60 Minutes, BBC2 documentary The Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home and was part of Salam Neighbor documentary. He represented Jordan in FLY2013 Film Leaders Incubator, a workshop comprised of 14 Asian countries. Other credits include The Translator and From the Mountain. Ibraheem strongly believes that filmmaking is the most powerful medium to convey and communicate the worlds different realities.

MAY JABAREEN (JUNIOR PRODUCER)

May Jabareen is a cultural activist, art manager, and junior producer at Philistine Films. Working in the industry since 2011, Jabareen has been part of numerous productions including Hany Abu-Assad's Omar and Huda’s Salon, Hiam Abbass' The Inheritance, Basil Khalil's A Gaza Weekend, and Ehab Tarabeh's Apples. She has acquired wide-ranging experience having worked in several positions within the industry including first and second assistant director, production coordinator, production manager and assistant producer.   

Jabareen graduated with a bachelor's degree in Cultural Work and Arts Management from the University of Potsdam in 2019. Upon her return to Palestine from Germany, she has worked in management and coordination, has taken part in different independent and experimental projects in different art fields, and has dedicated herself to contributing to the Palestinian arts and film industry.