The line-up consists of 52 films from 29 countries, including feature-length narratives, documentaries, and shorts.
Amman International Film Festival (AIFF) has announced the line-up of its third edition, which is due to take place from July 20 to 27 in Amman, Jordan.
The line-up consists of 52 films from 29 producing and co-producing countries, including Arab and international feature-length narratives, documentaries, and shorts. It is carefully curated after viewing hundreds of submissions, offering viewers an opportunity to watch films, which might not make it to commercial theatres in Jordan. All movies are released in 2021 and 2022 and are competing in four different categories, whereby winners will receive the Black Iris Trophy and cash awards.
In this upcoming edition, the AIFF will be hosting 33 filmmakers, amongst the pool of foreign guests, who will be representing their films and answering questions from the audience. In parallel to the screening programme, a series of workshops, panels and three pitching platforms for projects in development and post-production, as well as a Market, are organised in the framework of the Amman Film Industry Days (AFID).
The festival’s programme dedicates its ‘First and Latest’ section, which features the work and the cinematic journey of an accomplished and renowned filmmaker, to Egyptian auteur and acclaimed director Yousry Nasrallah. Nasrallah will give a closer look on how his filmmaking style and language have evolved over the years.
Furthermore, the third edition of the AIFF will be hosting the Franco-Arab Film Festival in a special out-of-competition section called ‘Franco-Arab Rendez-Vous’. In addition to co-hosting the opening film, The Franco-Arab Rendez-Vous will showcase three feature-length French films or films co-produced by France, as well as four shorts.
Commenting on the film selection, Areeb Zuaiter, Head of Programming of the AIFF, said: “It was such a hard mission to come up with the selection of this year’s edition of the AIFF. First-time filmmakers are rising up with their voices and telling more compelling stories that reflect their experiences and express their views. Compared to last year, the competition increased significantly. For this year’s selection, we worked diligently towards offering what we consider the finest and most compelling of those submissions. A debut film is always personal, add to that the delicacy of the topics the edition will be offering and the talent of the filmmakers that will be participating; the outcome is eagerly anticipated!”
The festival will open with the Canadian film, Peace by Chocolate (2021) – by first-time narrative filmmaker Jonathan Keijser and the final film to be starred by the late Hatem Ali, on July 20; while this edition’s winning short film will be showcased at the closing awards ceremony on July 27.
The AIFF will be using for the third year a drive-in cinema in the Abdali area, as well as the open-air theatre at the Royal Film Commission – Jordan (RFC) and TAJ Cinemas. In addition to the above, and in order to reach a wider audience, the festival will be organising some screenings across the Kingdom in Irbid, Aqaba and Salt.
Tickets can be purchased from the website and at two selling points at the Film Library of the Royal Film Commission and in TAJ Cinemas, as of July 5, 2022.
The film that will compete for the Black Iris Award in the Feature-Length Narrative category includes A Second Life, by Chema Lassoued (Tunisia), Costa Brava, Lebanon, by Mounia Akl (Lebanon), Daughters of Abdulrahman, by Zaid Abu Hamdan (Jordan), Farha, by Darin J. Sallam (Jordan), Tomorrow, by Dhafer L’Abidine (Tunisia), Soula, by Sala Issad (Algeria), and Streams, by Mehdi Hmili (Tunisia), among others.
Captains of Za’atari, by Ali El Araby (Egypt), Fiasco, by Nicolas Khoury (Lebanon), Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege, by Abdallah Al-Khatib (Lebanon), My Mohamed is Different, by Inès Marzouk (Tunisia), Nile Crocodile, by Nabil Shazli (Egypt), and more will compete in Feature-Length Documentary Films Competing for the Black Iris Award
Franco-Arab Rendez-vous section will include Mariner of the Mountains, by Karim Aïnouz (Algeria, France, Germany, Brazil), Bonne Mère, by Hafsia Herzi (Tunisia, France), You Resemble Me, by Dina Amer (Egypt, France, USA) (To be confirmed), and The River, by Ghassan Salhab (Lebanon, France, Germany, Qatar).
