Amman Int’l Festival turns focus on diverse stories, budding talent — organisers

AMMAN — Tickets were released on Thursday for the Amman International Film Festival - Awal Film (AIFF), which will take place between August 23 and August 31, 2021. 

The film festival will feature 51 films, from 25 countries, many of which will premiere at the festival and may never make it to commercial theatres, according to a AIFF statement sent to The Jordan Times. 

Nada Doumani, the festival’s director, said: “This is the first time we are having such a big cinematic event in Jordan, with such a rich programme, with screenings and talks. It’s something new, something unprecedented.” 

This will be the second international film festival in Amman. Preparing for the film festival amidst the coronavirus pandemic has been “extremely difficult”, Doumani told The Jordan Times. 

However, despite the pandemic-induced lockdowns and restrictions, this year’s festival will include a diverse set of Arab and international films, she said. 

“The AIFF’s selection this year includes diverse stories from our region; stories on passion and conflict, distinction and identity, youth, family and seniority. Yet, the festival also carries unified themes and shared experiences. Diaspora, self-examination and boldness are at the heart of the films competing in the various AIFF Arab sections,” Aeeeb Zuaiter, the head of AIFF’s programming, said in the statement. 

Mike Derderian is a Jordanian journalist, radio show host, graffiti artist, comic illustrator and film director. His animated film “Geisha L.O.V.E.” will premiere in this year’s film festival. 

The eight-minute action film features Geisha, a “tough, no-nonsense woman” who is “a renegade graffiti artist in a dystopian world”, Derderian told The Jordan Times. 

Derderian was inspired by his own work as a graffiti artist in Amman. Two years ago, Derderian received a grant from the Jordanian Royal Film Commission and the Jordanian Film Fund that allowed him to begin the film’s production. 

"Geisha L.O.V.E. is a two-year labour of love and hard work with a group of talented Jordanian artists who believed in my vision, story and art,” he said. 

“It is a festival focused on content,” highlighted Doumani. “Not on the red carpet, nor starts, nor necessarily premiers. What matters for us is to show movies that have not had the opportunities to be shown before,” she said 

The Amman Film Festival will screen many films, like Derderian’s, for the first time. Four films will have their world premiere at the festival and eight others will be screened for the first time in the Arab World, according to the AIFF statement. 

The festival will open with the award-winning Palestinian film, “Gaza Mon Amour” (2020) by Tarzan and Arab Nasser on August 23 and “Diana” (2020), a Jordanian short film by Maysoon Hbaidi, will be shown at the closing awards ceremony on August 31, according to the statement.

Tickets for the festival can be purchased on www.aiff.jo and www.sajilni.com and at two selling points in The Boulevard and in TAJ Cinemas, according to the statement. 

The film schedule can be found on the festival's website, as well. The films will be shown in Amman, Irbid, Salt and Wadi Rum. Tickets are JD5 per person for the indoor cinemas and JD10 for the drive-in theatres (counts for two people), according to Doumani. 

“It is a small festival, with limited resources, but we hope it can grow in years to come,” Doumani said.