Annemarie Jacir lived in Saudi Arabia until the age of sixteen, moving between Bethlehem and Riyadh. She received her undergraduate education in the United States and then began to work in theater, first in set design and then by writing and directing plays. Her career in cinema started in the film industry in Los Angeles, where she progressed from working as an assistant on various sets to the role of assistant editor, and then reader and camerawoman before attending Columbia University (New York) to obtain an MFA degree in film. After years of shuttling back and forth between projects, she eventually returned to the Arab world, moving to Palestine.
Annemarie has written, directed, and produced over sixteen films, two of which premiered as official selections in Cannes, one in Venice, and one in Berlin. Her short film like twenty impossibles (Cinefondation, 2003) made history as the first Arab short film to be an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival and continued to break ground when it went on to be a finalist for the Academy Awards. Other early films include The Satellite Shooters, Until When, A Few Crumbs for the Birds, and A Post Oslo History.
The critically acclaimed Salt of this Sea (Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2008), Palestine’s 2008 Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film, went on to win the FIPRESCI Critics Award and garnered 14 other international awards, including Best Film in Milan and Traverse City.
Her latest feature film, When I Saw You (2012), won Best Asian Film at the prestigious Berlin International Festival, Best Arab Film at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and Best Film in Amiens, Phoenix, and Olympia. Garnering a nomination at the Asian Pacific Screen Awards, it was also Palestine’s 2013 Oscar Entry for Best Foreign Language Film. The production of When I Saw You, led by a team of all-Palestinian producers, was financed entirely by Palestinians, with an all-Palestinian cast and crew, marking a new trend for independent cinema.
Committed to teaching, training, and hiring locally, Annemarie also curates, actively promoting independent cinema in the region. She has taught at Columbia University, Barnard College, Bethlehem University, and Birzeit University, and is co-founder and chief curator of the groundbreaking Dreams of a Nation 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 historic first screening in Palestine of several archival Palestinian films.
Founder of Philistine Films, an independent production house, she collaborates regularly with fellow filmmakers as a writer, producer, and editor. Most recently, she completed a script for Mira Nair. She also teaches screenwriting and works as a freelance editor, screenwriter, and script consultant. She is currently working in collaboration with her family on an exciting new project in Bethlehem.
Photos courtesy of Philistine Films
