Annemarie Jacir
آن ماري جاسر
Filmmaker and founder of Philistine Films
Palestinian filmmaker whose four features — from *Salt of This Sea* to *Palestine 36* — have all represented Palestine at the Academy Awards.
Annemarie Jacir was born in Bethlehem in 1974 and grew up between Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, where she earned a master’s degree in film. Her 2003 short like twenty impossibles was the first Arab short film selected for the official programme of the Cannes Film Festival. Determined to build an independent cinema rather than wait for one, she founded Philistine Films, a production company dedicated to new Arab voices, co-founded the Dreams of a Nation project for the promotion of Palestinian cinema, and later helped establish Dar Jacir for Art and Research in Bethlehem.
Her four feature films have each been Palestine’s entry for the Academy Award for international feature. Salt of This Sea (2008), the first feature film directed by a Palestinian woman, premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and won the FIPRESCI critics’ prize. When I Saw You (2012), set among Palestinian refugees and fighters in Jordan after 1967, won Best Asian Film at the Berlinale. Wajib (2017), a wry father-and-son drive through Nazareth, gathered more than thirty awards. Palestine 36 (2025), an ensemble epic of the 1936–39 revolt against British rule, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Selected works
- Salt of This Sea (2008)
- When I Saw You (2012)
- Wajib (2017)
- Palestine 36 (2025)
Sources
Further reading
An external biography or archive holding more on this life than the entry above.
Connected in the archive
8 connected records8 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
born in — 1 record
- Bethlehemبيت لحم
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: birthplace: "Bethlehem, Palestine" → Bethlehem (Bethlehem Governorate, West Bank)
names this person — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Palestinian Cinema
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Annemarie Jacir's Wajib (2017), Suleiman's It Must Be Heaven (2019), and Darin J.
- Suheir Hammadسهير حماد
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: She also starred in Annemarie Jacir's film Salt of This Sea (2008).
named in this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Nazarethالناصرة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Wajib (2017), a wry father-and-son drive through Nazareth, gathered more than thirty awards.
on a related subject — 4 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Elia Suleimanإيليا سليمان
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Shared tags: "cinema", "film".
- BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "Bethlehem".
- Emily Jacirإميلي جاسر
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "Bethlehem".
- Karimeh Abbudكريمة عبود
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "Bethlehem".
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Annemarie Jacir.” Figures, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/figures/annemarie-jacir.- MLA
“Annemarie Jacir.” Figures, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/figures/annemarie-jacir. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-annemarie-jacir, title = {Annemarie Jacir}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/figures/annemarie-jacir}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }