Annemarie Jacir
آن ماري جاسر
Born: Bethlehem, Palestine
Domain: Film & Television
Recognition: GLOBAL
Biography
Annemarie Jacir is one of the leading filmmakers of contemporary Palestinian cinema and a trailblazer for Palestinian women behind the camera. Born in Bethlehem to a Christian family, she spent part of her childhood in Saudi Arabia before moving to the United States, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University's School of the Arts. She has worked as a director, screenwriter, producer, and educator across the Arab world and internationally. Jacir broke barriers early: her short film "like twenty impossibles" (2003) was the first Arab short ever selected for the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008 she became the first Palestinian woman to write and direct a feature film with "Salt of This Sea," the story of an American-born daughter of Palestinian refugees who returns to her homeland; it won more than a dozen awards and was Palestine's official Oscar submission. Her second feature, "When I Saw You" (2012), set among Palestinian refugees in 1960s Jordan, won Best Asian Film at the Berlinale and multiple international prizes, confirming her as a major voice. Her acclaimed third feature, "Wajib" (2017), a wry, tender two-hander about a father and son delivering wedding invitations across Nazareth, starred Mohammad and Saleh Bakri and won or was nominated for some thirty-five international awards, becoming one of the most beloved Palestinian films of the decade. Jacir's films are marked by their warmth, humor, and refusal of cliché, portraying Palestinian life through richly human characters rather than political abstractions. She has also been a vital organizer and curator, co-founding and supporting Palestinian film initiatives and festivals that nurture the next generation of filmmakers. Her talent has won wide institutional recognition: in 2011 director Zhang Yimou selected her as his protégée in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, and she is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, BAFTA, and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy. Her later work includes the historical drama "Palestine 36," one of the most ambitious Palestinian productions to date. Jacir's significance lies in opening Palestinian feature filmmaking to women and in crafting a cinema of intimacy and dignity that travels far beyond the region. As the most prominent Palestinian woman director, she has both expanded who gets to tell Palestinian stories and demonstrated how richly those stories can be told.
Why This Person Matters
She is the most prominent Palestinian woman director and the first to write and direct a Palestinian feature, crafting a cinema of warmth and dignity that travels worldwide.