Annemarie Jacir Palestinian filmmaker and writer Annemarie Jacir has been working in independent cinema since 1994 and has written, directed and produced a number of award-winning films. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema. Her short film, like twenty impossibles was the first Palestinian short film to be an official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival (Cinefondation), went on to be a Student Academy Awards Finalist, and won over 15 awards at International festivals including Best Film at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Institute Du Monde Arabe Biennale, Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, and IFP/New York. Jacir lived in Saudi Arabia until the age of sixteen and then received her formal education in the United States. She worked as a telephone operator, radio DJ, swimming instructor, English tutor, building sets for theater, news camerawoman, museum researcher, writing and directing plays, and on film sets. She worked in the film industry in Los Angeles before deciding to focus more on writing and directing herself, and for that reason moved to New York to obtain a Masters degree in Film. She received the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's (ADC) Jack Shaheen Scholarship Award. She is also a recipient of a Jerome Foundation Media Arts grant, a New York State Council on the Arts distribution grant, the Paul Robeson Fund, and is winner of the Kathryn Parlan Screenwriting Award as well as a Zaki Gordan Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. Her feature script Salt of this Sea was selected for the Hubert Bals Development Fund in Rotterdam, the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in Utah, and was a Sopadin finalist for the Grande Prix du Meilleur Scenariste. Jacir co-founded Philistine Films, an independent production company, focusing on productions related to the Arab world and Iran. Jacir shot and produced the documentary Until When, an in-depth portrait of the lives of several families living in the Deheisha refugee camp as well as several other films. She collaborated with Algerian-French filmmaker Nassim Amouache on Quelques Miettes Pour Les Oiseaux, a documentary sketch of the lives of a handful of men and women eking out a living in the Jordanian town of Ruwayshed, a small-time oil-smuggling entrepot that's the last stop on the road to Iraq (Official Selection Venice International Film Festival, Best film Montpellier, Press prize Clermont Ferrand). She is chief curator and co-founder of the groundbreaking Dreams of a Nation Palestinian cinema project, dedicated to the promotion of Palestinian cinema. In 2003, she organized and curated the largest traveling film festival in Palestine, which included the screening of archival Palestinian films from Revolution Cinema, screening for the first time on Palestinian soil. She has taught at Columbia University, Bethlehem University, and Birzeit University and in refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and currently in Jordan. She works as a freelance editor and cinematographer as well as film curator. Jacir is a board member of Alwan for the Arts, a cultural organization devoted to North African and Middle Eastern art. She has served as a jury member to the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival as well as Cinecolor Award, Argentina. She is a founding member of the Palestinian Filmmakers’ Collective, based in Palestine. Salt of this Sea is her second film to be accepted as an Official Selection to the Cannes International Film Festival. Since being barred from returning to Palestine, she is currently based in Amman, Jordan. Selected Film Awards & Festivals SALT OF THIS SEA • World Premiere, Cannes Film Festival, Official Selection • International Critics Award (FIPRESCI Prize) 2008, Osians • Special Jury Prize, Osians Asian & Arab Film Festival • Sopadin Finalist, Grand Prize Best Screenplay LIKE TWENTY IMPOSSIBLES • World Premiere, Cannes Film Festival, Official Selection • National Finalist - Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Student Academy Awards • Best Short Screenplay - Nantucket Film Festival • Best Short Film - Palm Springs International Short Film Festival • Best Short Film (Emerging Narrative) - IFP/New York • Silver Plaque - Chicago International Film Festival • Best Short Film - Institute Du Monde Arabe Biannual • Best Screenwriting – Lenola Film Festival, Italy • Best Short Film Second Prize – Lenola Film Festival, Italy • Audience Choice Award - Polo Ralph Lauren Columbia University Fest. • Special Jury Prize - Ramallah International Film Festival • Best Short Film, Luis Trenker Award – 4Film Festival, Italy • Locarno Film Festival, Official Selection • Edinburgh International Film Festival, Official Selection • Telluride Film Festival, Official Selection • New York Film Festival, Official Selection • Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Czech Republic • Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia • Carthage Film Festival (Journees Cin. de Carthage), Tunis • Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival, France A FEW CRUMBS FOR THE BIRDS • Venice Film Festival , Sélection Officielle Corto Cortissimo • Montpellier Film Festival , Best Film • Clermont Ferrand Film Festival, Press Prize • Cesar Award Official Selection for Best Short Film, 2007 Selected Filmography Salt of this Sea (2008, 109’, Color, 35mm) Sound of the Street (2006, 3 min, Color, DV) An Explanation : (and then burn the ashes) (2005, 6 min, Color, 16mm) A Few Crumbs for the Birds (2005, 26 min, Color, 35mm) Until When (2004, 76 min, Color, DV) like twenty impossibles (2003, 17 min, Color, 35mm) Palestine is Waiting (2001, 10 min, Video) The Satellite Shooters (2001, 16 min, Color, 16mm) Two Hundred Years of American Ideology (2000, 12 min, Color, Video) Chronicle of Civilized & Consequential Moments of Reconciliation (2000, 2 min, Video A Revolutionary Tale (2000, 9 min, Color, Video) A Post-Oslo History (1998, 8 min, Color, Video) Interview (1994, 4 min. Color, Video) More press and articles: 25 New Faces of Indie Film 2004, Filmmaker Magazine, Summer 2004 Brentjes, Rana, The multiple layers of Palestinian identity in Annemarie Kattan Jacir`s films, Deutscher Orientalistentag IMEU, Annemarie Jacir: Artist and Filmmaker, February,2007. Kemp, Rebecca, “Interviews with Palestinian Filmmakers”, 6 Degrees Film, Fall 2006 Quilty, Jim, Like dying, totally helpless, trapped in a car, The Daily Star, Nov. 23rd, 2006 Rastegar, Kamran, "Palestine Only Exists in Cinema", Bidoun Magazine, Issue 8, Vol. 1, Fall 2006 Smith, Gavin, Editor’s Choice Best Films of the Year, Film Comment Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004 Souri, Helga Tawil, Film Review “like twenty impossibles”, Visual Anthropology Review, Volume 21, Numbers 1 & 2 (2005) Taubin, Amy, Discovery Annemarie Jacir, Film Comment Magazine, Jan/Feb 2004