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The San Diego Arab Film Festival and the Pacific Arts Movement co-present British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s award-winning feature film The Teacher on September 28 at the Museum of Photographic Arts @ The San Diego Museum of Art. Filmed entirely in the occupied West Bank, The Teacher tells a story based on actual events and is set in 2014. After the demolition of a Palestinian home by Israeli authorities and the murder of a youth by an Israeli settler, a teacher, played by renowned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, tries to manage his own support for the resistance with his efforts to mentor the younger brother of the deceased boy (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) and his relationship with a British human rights worker (Imogen Poots).
The Teacher had its world premier at the Toronto International Film Festival and its US premier at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It won Audience Choice Award at the San Francisco International, Washington. D.C. International, Brooklyn, Cyprus Film Days International, Arab Film Days, Houston Palestine and Rotterdam Arab Film Festivals. Saleh Bakri won Best Actor Awards at the Red Sea, Belgrade International, Annaba Mediterranean and Malmo Arab Film Festivals.
Cafeteria style Arabic dinner will be available including Musakhan (a traditional Palestinian dish of baked chicken with onions, olive oil and sumac served over bread) and Mujadara (a traditional vegetarian dish of lentils and rice garnished with sauteed onions, served with Arabic salad).
Dinner will be available at 6:00 PM. Theater doors open at 6:40 PM. Program starts at 7:00 PM.
The Palestinian films Lyd and Mar Mama have won the 2024 San Diego Arab Film Festival Audience Choice Awards for feature length and short films, respectively. The Audience Choice Awards are given annually as determined by vote of the Festival attendees.
Lyd was co-directed by Palestinian filmmaker Rami Younis and US filmmaker Sarah Emma Friedland. Lyd is a science-fiction documentary that tells the story of a 5,000 year old city that was a victim of the 1948 Nakba. It imagines what the city might be like if it had never been occupied by Israel. Co-director Rami Younis particpated in a Q&A session following the screening.
Mar Mama was directed by Palestinian-Canadian filmmaker Majdi El-Omari. The film tells the story of a young girl haunted by her mother’s death and the recurring attacks on her city by the Israeli army. Faced with these traumas, she becomes obsessed with death. As her father attempts to distract her by creating a stop-motion film, reality intrudes, and she finds solace in her imagination and fantasies.
The San Diego Arab Film Festival (San Diego AFF) invites submissions for its upcoming festival scheduled for April 4-13, 2025.
San Diego AFF is seeking narrative, documentary, experimental and animated films, both features and shorts.
San Diego AFF began in 2012 and presents films from and about the Arab world that reinforce the humanity of Arab people and it highlights the dynamism and creativity of contemporary Arab culture. The Festival strives to show top-quality films that offer honest and realistic portrayals of Arab people and their culture, history and politics without reinforcing negative stereotypes.
San Diego AFF is a project of KARAMA, a 501(c)(3) in San Diego. For more information about KARAMA, visit www.karamanow.org.
San Diego AFF accepts submissions on FilmFreeway. Click on the link below to access the submission pages.
Schedule of Submissions
Opening Date: August 5, 2024
Regular Deadline: October 28, 2024
Late Deadline: November 18, 2024
Notification Date: January 6, 2025
Event Date: April 4-13, 2025
Awards and Prizes
Selected films will be entered into competition for Audience Awards for Best Feature Film and Best Short Film.
Rules and Terms
San Diego Arab Film Festival seeks films from and about the Arab world produced between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2024. Films must have legible English subtitles unless there is little or no dialogue.
San Diego AFF prefers that submissions be made via Film Freeway, however downloadable links (with passwords) may be submitted to lchristian@sandiegoaff.org.
Formats
Selected films must be available in DCP, high resolution .264 or MP4 format with a
frame rate of 24fps. Please include director’s name, country of origin, and a brief description.
By special arrangements, submissions may be made by mail or delivery service with the understandings that San Diego AFF will not bear costs related to shipping and that submitted media may not be returned. Contact lchristian@sandiegoaff.org for further information.
Fees
Regular Deadline: Feature films, $15; short films, $10
Late Deadline: Feature films, $25; short films, $20.
Pay fees via Film Freeway at time of submission.
Selected Films
Official Selections will be asked to provide a password protected link for previewing, high resolutions stills and any available press materials for use in publicizing the film and the Festival.
2022-2023 is the eighth year that the San Diego Arab Film Festival is receiving support from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. This recognition and support represents an important milestone for the Festival and for San Diego’s Arab Community: it shows that Arab culture is an important part of the fabric of San Diego! In addition, on-going support from the Arts and Culture Commission helps lay the groundwork for the Festival’s growth as a dynamic part of San Diego’s cultural life.
Financial support is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.
KARAMA’s vision is to grow the San Diego Arab Film Festival into a major cultural event that enhances the identity, perception and understanding of the Arab and the Arab world. Doing so will require time, energy and money. You can help in multiple ways…
For all inquires, please fill out the form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. We’ll be happy to answer all of your questions.
A Palestinian couple living in Gaza is preparing for their wedding when an event changes their life story. After this incident, the Palestinian bride is reviewing her memories of the joys and sorrows of the 7 days leading up to the wedding day and whispering to her husband, Ahmed, who is a fisherman from Gaza. This documentary tries for the first time to discuss the word resistance along with the concept of life in Palestine and Gaza.
Aida Returns is a poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer’s disease, but finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more. This journey is at the same time very private and personal, while resonating with hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families as well as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees awaiting their return home.
Close to four years after Aida’s passing away, the director’s friend and colleague Tanya who lives in Ramallah came to visit Beirut. When she heard about Aida’s wishes and yearning for Yafa, Tanya suggested that she herself carries the ashes back. The film accompanies director Carol Mansour as she engineers a way to return her mother to Yafa in search of eternal rest and peace for her. A return that is aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers all coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey.
