Rifqi Assaf

Rifqi Assaf is a Jordanian/Palestinian Filmmaker, writer and poet, born in Amman-Jordan, on 31st of July 1978, with origins that come from Arraba - Jenin in Palestine, as the elder son of late Adnan Rifqi Assaf (1949-1998) and Nawal Yousef Abu Na'ameh, with 2 sisters and one brother. Suffering from a physical problem called Congenital Scoliosis, which caused him deforms in the spine and Short stature, secured him an inspirational childhood and teenage, which sharpened the creative side he already had. Winning many awards as a child for drawing, and praised for his acting skills in a school play. He started writing in the age of 12, with short stories, articles and poems, later he started publishing his writings in many publications. With the internet revolution, forums and blogs became the new publishing medium for his writing. He started his filmmaking career by attending filmmaking workshops with Amman Filmmakers Cooperative to follow his childhood and teenage wildest dream... That was in 2005, at the age of 27, this time as a writer/director, he made many short films as a director, before making a step back to writing with his award-winning short film "The View" (2008) as a co-writer/co-director with Hazim Bitar, winning many awards including 2 screenwriting awards. He then wrote and directed his first feature length film as a Writer/Director "The Curve" (2015), winning script grants from Jordan Film Fund, AFAC and shortlisted as a finalist for Shasha script grant. The completed film made it to many film festivals around the world winning some awards and still touring. Rifqi wrote short films for other directors, such as "ABC" for Mohammad Salameh, "A Cold Morning in November" by Robert Abboud (winner of Jury and Audience awards at the Jordan Short Film competition at the Franco Arab Film Festival) and "The Parrot" (winner of Robert Bosch grant) as a co-writer with Darin Sallam and Amjad Rasheed. He also worked as a head writer/creative director/executive producer for the first Jordanian sitcom to be ever made; "Asfoureyyeh". He also wrote 3 episodes of the Saudi episodic first of its kind interactive series "Asaab Qarar". Besides working as a script doctor and consultant for many projects (both credited and uncredited), he also started coaching "screenwriting" as a contractor with Royal Film Commission of Jordan, in September 2018 he started a part time job with Royal Film Commission of Jordan as a contracted film advisor, He is now working on his second feature length script and some other TV projects, such as Jordan Film Fund TV Development Finalist "AlMarsoud".