AMMAN — At a time when Arab cinema is grappling with questions of voice, visibility, and viability, the Pitching Platforms on the Amman Worldwide Movie Competition (AIFF) supplied one thing uncommon: an area for filmmakers to talk freely, and be heard.
A part of the competition’s Amman Movie Trade Days, this yr’s platforms awarded money and in-kind prizes throughout three classes: Jordanian First Movie (Improvement), Arab Initiatives (Improvement), and Publish-Manufacturing. In a area the place sources may be troublesome to entry and censorship persists, the initiative supplied greater than help. It supplied connection, recognition, and momentum.
A Surge of Urgency and Creativeness
For Egyptian filmmaker Jad Chahine, the Pitching Platform was a launchpad for “The Masters of Magic and Magnificence,” a generational delusion set in a desert world formed by magic, rise up, and prophecy.
“This story was impressed by the hole between the world I grew up in — the place custom and obedience had been sacred — and the legendary tales my grandmother informed me,” Chahine revealed.
The movie opens with a surreal twist: a person mistakenly consumes a fertility herb supposed for his spouse and turns into pregnant, triggering a curse that spans generations.
“It’s not about shock,” he added. “It’s about exposing the fragility of techniques we’re taught to belief: gender, energy, lineage.”
Chahine’s earlier brief, “The Name of the Brook,” premiered at Cannes’ La Cinef in 2023. With this new undertaking, he dives deeper into magical realism as cultural critique.
Lots of this yr’s tasks handled warfare, exile, and inherited trauma, but additionally use daring and progressive types like magical realism, style, and hybrid codecs. For jury member Eduardo Guillot, movie critic and Fipresci member, this mix signalled “a necessity to inform tales from a perspective that many worldwide festivals ignore or contemplate unique, however with out which up to date cinema can not afford to maneuver ahead.”
Documenting Identification in Exile
Within the Jordanian first movie class, Palestinian filmmaker Bayan Abuta’ema, primarily based in Jordan, was acknowledged for her first documentary, “From Short-term to Semi-Everlasting,” a private exploration of exile and id in Palestinian refugee camps.
“Once you witness an ongoing genocide in Gaza, it turns into an ethical and emotional accountability to inform tales that serve your folks,” she defined.
Abuta’ema acquired three prizes, together with skilled consultations, in-kind improvement help, and choice for an business program in France.
“These aren’t simply logistical boosts,” she emphasised. “They’re instruments that assist me inform the story extra powerfully and share it past borders.”
She additionally highlighted the sense of solidarity amongst her friends, saying, “We supported one another and realized from one another’s views. That was extremely inspiring.”
From Short-term to Semi-Everlasting
Courtesy of Bayan Abutaema
From the Camps to the Display
For Hamza Hamideh, whose documentary “Asphalt, already a serious prize-winner at Cannes Docs, is ready within the largest Palestinian refugee camp on the planet, positioned in Jordan, AIFF supplied one thing completely different: cultural resonance.
“The viewers was largely Arab. They understood the nuances,” he noticed. “The jury and the viewers had been proud of the undertaking, and that made me proud. Now I really feel much more accountable to complete it effectively.”
Guillot described the jury course of as deeply partaking: “My aim was to maintain my eyes and ears open, to immerse myself within the tales the tasks supplied.” Initiatives like “Asphalt,” he added, “are destined to form the way forward for Arab cinema, and I can’t categorical how keen I’m to see them accomplished and on a giant display.”
Rewriting Masculinity in Morocco
Within the Publish-Manufacturing class, Moroccan co-directors Ali Benchekroune and Mohamed Bakrim received help for “Testosterone,” a gritty style movie analyzing masculinity in disaster.
“Our protagonist, Karim, is a person adrift,” Benchekroune famous. “He’s navigating a poisonous panorama with lies and a fragile, muscular facade as his compass.”
Their prize: skilled colour grading and DCP creation, will assist them full the movie to worldwide requirements.
“It’s not simply monetary aid,” he added. “It’s a transformative creative asset that lets us end the movie the way in which we imagined it.”
Lebanese-American filmmaker Daniel Habib, whose undertaking “Kobra” was featured within the Publish-Manufacturing part, insisted, “I imagine it is very important inform these tales as a result of style cinema is turning into extinct within the area. Auteurs merely write what they assume movie grants would need to hear.” For Habib, reclaiming style can be about cultural possession: “I needed to make the flicks I grew up watching in my very own native tradition.”
Testosterone
Courtesy of Ali Benchekroune
Elevating Voices, One Body at a Time
Fellow post-production winner Ager Ouelasti, together with her undertaking “You Don’t Die Two Instances,” echoed the worth of the platform.
“It affirms the significance of the tales we’re telling and encourages us to maintain going, regardless of any difficulties,” she affirmed.
Her staff plans to finalize modifying, sound, and colour grading, important steps towards competition submission.
Additionally awarded:
*“The Orange Grove,” by Jordanian director Murad Abu Eisheh, follows a younger Arab actor in New York whose position in a Greek tragedy reveals childhood trauma from a war-torn homeland. The undertaking acquired a $7,000 improvement grant from the Royal Movie Fee … A regal reward for a robust story of reminiscence and id.
*“Ping Pong,” by Palestinian director Saleh Saadi, follows a grieving man who finds unlikely solace in nightly ping-pong tournaments as warfare rages close by. The well timed undertaking acquired a $2,500 money award and $2,500 in-kind session award for a undertaking in improvement from Masna3.
*“The Final Mayor of Jerusalem,” by Kinda Kuri, the story of Palestinian resistance in 1948 by way of uncommon footage and the memoir of the town’s remaining Arab mayor, went dwelling with $25,000 in-kind manufacturing providers for a Jordan first movie undertaking (Improvement) from Slate Movie Companies.
*“Six 2 One,” by Jordanian-Australian Tamir Naber, a fictionalized historic drama, tells the story of a 1987 act of resistance to discover dignity, ethics, and the quiet braveness behind revolution. The Ghiath and Nadia Sukhtian Basis granted the undertaking a $5,000 money award within the Jordanian first movie undertaking (Improvement) class.
*“Like a Chook within the Sky,” by Amal Ramsis, follows three daring Egyptian women who break into Cairo’s male-dominated world of rooftop pigeon racing. The formidable undertaking, praised for its originality and perspective by the jury, was awarded a $10,000 money award for a story undertaking in improvement by ART.
*“Amal,” by Khaled Al Swidan, a harrowing portrait of kid marriage and survival, following two sisters navigating love, trauma, and displacement throughout Jordanian refugee camps, received one yr of in-kind consultations from the Documentary Affiliation of Europe.
*“All of the Wind Can Carry,” by Egyptian Maged Nader, a lyrical doc-feature exploring reminiscence, grief, and dementia by way of a grandmother’s fragmented recollections of loss, bagged in-kind sound design and mixing award in post-prod value $15,000 from Unison.
*“Alicante,” a co-production between France, Spain, and Algeria by Lina Soualem, follows a girl caught between private disaster and household obligation as she struggles to save lots of her mother and father’ restaurant on the Spanish seaside. The director was chosen to take part in Cairo Movie Connection 2025.
The Message Is Clear
As filmmakers from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, and past shared tales of survival, transformation, and id, the Amman Movie Competition’s Pitching Platforms made one factor sure: Arab cinema shouldn’t be ready for permission. It’s already in movement.
“We need to transfer past stereotypes and provide uncooked, complicated, impactful tales,” Benchekroune asserted.
For Abuta’ema, the mission is deeply rooted in lived expertise. “Telling these tales is not only about reminiscence,” she concluded. “It’s about remodeling absence into presence.”
As Guillot mirrored, “In only a few years, AIFF has been in a position to convey collectively a major variety of fascinating proposals that, as time has proven, have subsequently performed a key position in shaping up to date Arab cinema.”
