Najwa Najjar

Writer/ Director Najwa Najjar received her BA in Political Science and Economics, MA in Film/Video Production (US). She has worked in both documentary and fiction since 2000. Her critically acclaimed debut was the feature film Pomegranates and Myrrh (2009). Her second award winning feature film Eyes of a Thief (2014) won Best Director and Best Actor awards, among many others, and was the Palestinian nomination for the 2015 Oscars Best Foreign Film and the Golden Globe Awards. Her third feature film, a road trip: Between Heaven and Earth shot throughout the country was selected Official Competition at the Cairo International Film Festival and won the Naguib Mafouz award for Best Screenplay (Nov2019). Previous work include several award-winning films also shown worldwide (Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Hamptons,) : Yasmine Tughani (2006) , Naim and Wadee'a (2000), Quintessence of Oblivion(2001), Blue Gold (2004), A Boy Called Mohamad (2002), and They Came from the East which opened the 2004 European Academy Awards. Najjar produced a collection of short films by international filmmakers Gaza Winter (2009). A speaker on numerous panels on cinema and a Jury member of several International Film Festivals, she recently gave a Director's Masterclass at Galway Film Festival and a LuxFest. Najjar has reviewed books, and her articles on Palestinian cinema have been published. She has been a reader for the Rawi Sundance Lab for Arab scriptwriters and has been also been an advisor for the Rawi Sundance Scriptwriter's Lab. She will be giving a directing class on set to refugees in Jordan interested in filmmaking.