While many regional festivals are racing for premieres and photo ops, the Amman International Film Festival quietly follows a different script, one centered on sincerity and storytelling.
“We are not really after glamor,” says festival director Nada Doumani. “The festival is focused on cinema and filmmaking,” she adds. As at last year’s edition, there will be no red carpet, a move in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
With filmmakers responding to real-time crises and shifting norms, this year’s theme, “A World Unscripted,” reflects the unsettled reality shaping today’s cinema.
One of the standout parts of this year’s program is From Ground Zero, a slate of five short documentaries made inside Gaza during the ongoing war. “These aren’t films about Gaza,” says Doumani. “They’re made by people living it. They’re not looking in from the outside.”
Though shot under siege, the films aren’t only about devastation. There’s humor, resilience, in a word, life. One follows a man wiring solar panels to keep a shelter alive. Another focuses on children turning rubble into makeshift toys.
For the first time, the festival has named a country of honor, Ireland. “There’s a natural storytelling kinship between Ireland and the Arab world,” Doumani says. “Their political stance on Palestine was also important to us.”
Legendary Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan (“In the Name of the Father,” “My Left Foot”) will be honored and several titles––also including “Michael Collins,” by Neil Jordan, Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” by Martin McDonagh––will screen as part of a curated cross-cultural program. The collaboration underscores the festival’s belief in cinema as common ground.
The Festival screenings are accompanied by two talks open to te public, one with Sheridan on July 6 and on July 7, Two Unscripted Worlds: Football and Cinema – How and Where They Meet, hosted by Prince Ali, Head of the Jordan Football Association and the Chairman of the Jordan Film Commission.
Launched last year, the Boulevard Screenings continue to bring the festival to the public. Over three nights, short out-of-competition films will play in an open-air venue in Amman’s Abdali district, free to attend. Doumani says she’s particularly proud of this initiative for creating interest in people who may not have much exposure to cinema.
There are also plans to expand screenings beyond the capital. “We already show selections in towns and cities,” she adds. “We want people across the country to be saying: ‘When is the festival coming?’”
This year marks the launch of the Spark Series, a new section at the Amman Film Industry Days (AFID) and its Pitching Platforms, dedicated to independently made web series from across the Arab world. It’s not competitive, yet, but it signals an embrace of new formats and emerging voices. “These are people who don’t wait for funding or a green light,” Doumani states. “[Web series] are cheap to make. You can upload it immediately. They are young. They are short. They can be very impactful.”
Yunan
Courtesy of Amman Film Festival
From the outset, the Amman International Film Festival was designed not as a showcase for foreign filmmakers, but as a platform to support and grow Jordan’s own cinematic ecosystem. “A festival contributes to the development of a country’s cinema,” Doumani asserts, “but we felt it would be inadequate to launch one without first having an industry to support.”
That foundational thinking shaped the festival’s emphasis on local talent, training opportunities, and industry events. By nurturing Jordanian filmmakers and ensuring the community had something to connect to, the festival became not just a celebration of film, but a catalyst for its creation locally.
True to its founding vision, the Amman Film Festival remains the only festival in the region dedicated exclusively to debut works: first-time features, first-time documentaries, first-time short films. “We want to give space to new voices,” says Doumani. “It’s a bet on talent, on people who are just starting out but have something urgent to say.”
Asked whether representation– of women, minorities, LGBTQ+ voices – is part of the selection criteria, Doumani is blunt. “We don’t select films based on gender or identity. We look for sincerity, truth and conviction. That’s our only filter.”
On where she hopes to see the festival in five years, Doumani is optimistic, “Most probably someone else will have taken over, but I hope the festival continues with its own identity. Focused on cinema, not glamor. Supporting people who have something to say.” She hopes it grows, but without compromising its core. “We don’t want to enter the race of who pays more to get a premiere. That’s not us.”
Industry visibility remains a priority. AFID, the festival’s industry platform, is back with pitching forums and development labs for Arab filmmakers. Selected projects in development and post-production stages will receive feedback from international mentors, producers, and festival programmers.
Panels and talks open to all industry participants include a scoring masterclass with music composer Khaled Mouzanar (“Caramel,” “Capernaum”). AFID workshops include AI and Filmmaking: A Grounded Guide with Aleksi Hyvärinen, described as a “candid, tool-agnostic workshop that explores the creative and ethical dimensions of AI in cinema.”
This year’s AFID lineup includes debut features and daring shorts, with many filmmakers drawing on deeply personal or politically charged material. “The region is bleeding,” says Doumani. “Our stories matter. Sometimes the message takes precedence over technique.”
The 2025 festival boasts 16 world premieres. A few titles stand out as especially anticipated, including “Simsim,” a Jordanian production set in the 1980s tells the story of a young boy who works in a cemetery in Amman but dreams of greener pastures. “Khartoum,” a Sudanese-British documentary co-produced with Germany and Qatar, brings urgent, first-person accounts from activists and civilians fleeing conflict in Sudan.
While the festival avoids rigid themes, a through-line is emerging: urgency, resistance, and honesty. This year, that spirit takes many forms, from a Syrian filmmaker chronicling exile through fiction in “Yunan,” which played Berlin main competition), to a Jordanian debut about migration and masculinity, Cannes Critics’ Week double winner, “Inshallah a Boy.”
For those looking for festival glitz and glamour, Amman will not deliver. But for those seeking the pulse of a region undergoing major change, this small, serious festival punches far above its weight.