Philistine Films is an independent production company founded by filmmaker Annemarie Jacir in 1997 and Ossama Bawardi joined in 2010. With offices in Jordan and Palestine, the company has played a central role in developing and producing independent Arab cinema, focusing on bold, director-driven storytelling and international co-productions. Its slate includes internationally recognized films such as SALT OF THIS SEA, which premiered at Cannes and was Palestine’s Academy Award submission, as well as WHEN I SAW YOU and WAJIB, both of which achieved wide festival acclaim. The company has also been behind more recent high-profile productions, including THE PRESENT, which won the BAFTA for Best Short Film and received an Oscar nomination. Working across fiction and documentary with films regularly selected at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Toronto, Philistine Films specializes in cross-border collaborations that bring locally rooted stories to global audiences.
PALESTINE 36: Premiering at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and going on an extensive global festival run, the film, directed by Jacir, won Best Film at the Tokyo Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
COTTON QUEEN: Premiering at Venice, Suzannah Mirghani’s debut feature made its way to the likes of Chicago, Doha, and Hamburg, and won the Golden Alexander for Best Film at Thessaloniki.
WHO IS STILL ALIVE: An experimental documentary following nine Gazan refugees reminiscing about their old neighborhoods by Nicolas Wadimoff that premiered at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori, where it won the Cinema & Art Award before winning Best Documentary at Tbilisi and Solothurn.
HOUSE OF HOPE: Marjolein Busstra’s documentary about a pacifist Waldorf school in the occupied West Bank debuted at IDFA and made its way to Hot Docs and Millennium Docs Against Gravity.
PING-PONG: Saleh Saadi’s debut feature film project has so far been selected for Cairo Film Connection, La Fabrique Cinéma, Durban FilmMart, and the EAVE Producer’s Network, winning development prizes across the board.
