The Jordan International Film Festival returned, the evening of the day before yesterday, Sunday, September 20, to the forefront of the Jordanian cultural scene, opening its eleventh edition on the main stage at the Royal Cultural Center, under the patronage of Minister of Culture Mustafa Al-Rawashdeh, after a hiatus dating back to the tenth edition held in 2022. The festival continues until next Thursday, organized by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Jordanian Artists Association, marking a return that raises, alongside its celebration of film, a broader question about its place in developing the local cinematic experience after more than a decade since its launch.
اضافة اعلان
Al-Rawashdeh said at the opening that the festival's importance lies in artists' persistence in presenting what's new in both form and content, and in the search for aesthetic proposals and innovative treatments, pointing to visions built on the visual narration of stories, tales, and events. This edition comes with notable numbers; the Ministry of Culture announced that the festival received 2,099 films from various countries, of which eight were selected for the official competition, alongside six films produced by the ministry and six others by Jordanian university students, while opening-night coverage points to the participation of twenty films representing Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Poland, Malaysia, the Sultanate of Oman, and Italy.
Adnan Madanat... a lifetime in service of the cinematic image
The most significant moment of the opening, however, came with the selection of critic, director, and researcher Adnan Madanat as the "Festival Personality" for 2026, an honor going beyond celebrating an individual biography to reviving an essential chapter in the history of Jordanian cinematic culture.
Madanat is considered one of the most prominent names to have contributed to establishing cinematic culture in Jordan. He was born in Amman in 1946, finished high school in 1964, before heading to Moscow to study film and television, earning his advanced diploma in 1970, specializing in documentary cinema.
Madanat began his practical experience in cinema early, working as second assistant to Syrian director Nabil Al-Maleh on the film "The Leopard" in 1971, then moved into documentary directing, presenting a number of documentary films, including "A Melody for Several Seasons," "News from Tal al-Zaatar," and "Palestinian Visions," works tied to cultural, national, and Arab issues. He also wrote the dramatic treatment and screenplay for the feature film "An Eastern Tale" in 1991.
In 1973, he moved to Beirut, where his experience in film criticism expanded, writing for daily and weekly newspapers and magazines, and producing studies and articles on films and their makers. He also conducted interviews with Arab directors, including Palestinian director Michel Khleifi, writing about his work and his film "Images from Fertile Memories."
But an essential part of Madanat's impact on the Jordanian scene is tied to his long tenure at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, where he oversaw cinematic activity and screening and discussion programs over the decades.
During these years, the foundation presented hundreds of Arab and international films, many accompanied by discussions and seminars, which helped introduce Jordanian audiences to different cinematic schools and movements, and opened the door for generations of film enthusiasts to watch and discuss them regularly.
Alongside directing and criticism, Madanat left behind an extensive body of books and studies. His works include In Search of Cinema (1974), Cinematic Selections (1995), Tales from Beirut's Nights of Violence (1996), The Beautiful Age (1998), Paths of Arab Television Drama (2002), Transformations of Contemporary Arab Cinema (2004), Cinema Searching for Itself (2006), The Crisis of Arab Cinema (2007), up to Writings on Understanding Cinema (2022).
He also published Documentary Cinema: Drama and Poetry, and wrote a study on "The History of Palestinian Cinema" within the Palestinian Encyclopedia, alongside his work in translation and writing on visual art, aesthetics, philosophy, and the arts. Among his contributions was also translating the writings of Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov into Arabic.
Jordanian film critic Najeh Hassan believes Madanat holds a distinguished place in the Arab cinematic scene in general and Jordanian cultural life, considering him a pioneer of critical writing on film, noting that he has enriched the Arab library with more than twenty works, several of which still serve as references for filmmakers, researchers, and film enthusiasts.
Hassan adds that the significance of Madanat's practice doesn't stop at criticism, as he was among those who took part in making Jordanian films at a time when local experiences in this field were still in their infancy, and that his knowledge of film techniques and aesthetic and intellectual vocabulary was reflected in the nature of his writings and articles published in Arab newspapers and periodicals, some of which were translated and published in other languages.
According to Hassan, Madanat also took part in Arab and international film festivals as a critic, researcher, and jury member, including prominent Arab festivals, and received a number of honors and recognitions throughout his career. His interests weren't limited to cinema either, as he wrote on visual art and translated literary and intellectual works in fiction, the novel, aesthetics, and philosophy and art.
Madanat's honoring at the eleventh edition of the Jordan International Film Festival comes in recognition of a career spanning more than half a century between filmmaking, criticism, research, writing, and cultural work, a career that accompanied the early stages of the formation of cinematic interest in Jordan, and helped build an audience that knowscinema, follows it, and discusses it, not just watches it.
Four names from the memory of Jordanian drama
The celebration didn't stop at Madanat; the edition also honored four pioneers of Jordanian art and drama: director Salah Abu Hnoud, actor Mohammad Al-Abbadi, actor Abdul Karim Al-Qawasmeh, and director Ahmad Dueibes, in an honoring that felt closer to a tribute to a generation that helped establish Jordan's television and dramatic presence across the Arab world.
Abu Hnoud is one of the pioneers of Jordanian television directing, with his most notable works including "The Ascent to the Summit" and "The Long Road," and historical and dramatic works that left a mark on television memory. He was the first Jordanian television director to receive the first-degree Al-Hussein Excellence Award in 1995, later receiving the State Appreciation Award for his body of work. Mohammad Al-Abbadi's career, meanwhile, spans more than five decades, with his name tied to works such as "The Long Road," "Firewood and Fire," and "Nimr bin Adwan," in addition to his portrayal of the poet Tarafa bin al-Abd.
Abdul Karim Al-Qawasmeh represents an early generation of Jordanian drama actors, particularly historical works performed in classical Arabic, alongside his long experience in dubbing, while Ahmad Dueibes belongs to a generation of directors who built their experience within Jordanian television and dramatic production, having begun working in television in 1975, before presenting works including "Falcon of the Mountain" and "The Last Days of Mulberry," among others.
Between a platform for beginnings and the demand to move toward professionalism
At the same time, the edition opens a question the festival cannot postpone for long: is its mission to present first experiences for young filmmakers, or to gradually contribute to shaping a film industry? The festival, which began in 2013 under the name the Jordanian Film Festival before gaining its international status, has remained, in an essential part of it, tied to short films and emerging experiences, and its return in 2026 came after postponements and a comprehensive review; the observations of the previous edition's jury president, Egyptian director Khairy Beshara, had raised questions at the time about the level of some Jordanian entries compared to what other Jordanian experiences had achieved at international festivals.
Director of the Theatre and Visual Arts Directorate at the Ministry of Culture, director and festival manager Ishaq Yassin, said in remarks to Al Ghad that one of the festival's goals is to support Jordanian youth, particularly university students and those with first experiences, explaining that films produced by the ministry receive support reaching around five thousand dinars per work, giving talents the chance to enter the field of filmmaking.
He notes that naming the event the "Jordan International Film Festival," rather than "the Cinema Festival," reflects part of its nature; it doesn't present purely professional cinematic works so much as it also makes room for small, emerging attempts still searching for their tools and path, alongside hosting films from abroad to broaden the space for exposure and experience.
Here, the festival's value and its limits become clear at the same time. Offering a screen for beginners is important, but the accumulation of editions alone doesn't turn short, low-budget experiences into an industry. The challenge in the coming years will be building a bridge between the "first film" and professionalism: developing scripts, raising technical expertise, and opening pathways for production, financing, and distribution, making the festival a stop for discovering talent and then pushing it to the next stage, rather than leaving the local experience trapped in a cycle of beginnings.
Twenty films and a clear bet on youth
The program reflects this direction; among the Ministry of Culture's productions, works such as "Tattoo" by Motassem Smeirat, "On the Edge" by Obada Al-Dhamour, "Bukra" by Zaid Al-Sabaileh featuring Abdul Karim Al-Qawasmeh, and "Origin" by Omar Al-Sarayrah stand out, works that intersect with themes of the psychological impact of experiences, fateful decisions, hope, and the conflict between heritage and change. The festival also dedicated space to university students through the films "Darkness of Light," "Breath," "The Lost Echo," "The Moon Split," "Ash," and "The Sun Set."
In the broader international and local program, titles include "Decision by Majority," "Number 42," "The City," and "Kidnapped," alongside Turkish, Russian, Malaysian, and European works "Görev Tamamlandı Asker," "Home from Home," "Car Park Cinema," "ADAM," "The Final Test," and "A Very Long Wire, Almost Endless."
A jury chaired by Ali Al-Rubayat, with members Joseph Shamali, Khaled Sale, Marwan Al-Salihi, and Dalia Al-Nemer, will select the winners, with the competition tied to the tradition of the "Petra Awards," which have previously covered best overall film, directing, acting, screenplay, cinematography, lighting, editing, and music.
Between honoring a memory represented by Adnan Madanat and his generation, and opening the door to students, some of whom haven't yet left the space of first experience, the eleventh edition seems to stand between two eras: a rich Jordanian legacy in drama and visual culture, and a cinematic ambition still searching for a production structure matching the scale of its talents. Perhaps the festival's real test, after its return, isn't just the number of films it screens, but the number of experiences it can push from hobby to profession, and from the festival's local screen to the wider space of cinema.
Resource: Al-Ghad. Repporting: Israa Al-Radaideh
