The Sharjah Art Foundation has awarded the inaugural Sharjah Film Platform Feature Fund to Annemarie Jacir for Palestine 36 (2025) and Mohamad W. Ali for Colored Sweets (under production, expected 2026). The prize of AED 500,000 will be divided equally between them.
‘Both films present urgent and resonant stories that promise to make a lasting impact on Arab, Asian and global cinema. They distinguished themselves through their urgency and importance, their confrontation of questions central to our times and the sharp, captivating artistic visions of their directors’, the jury said in a statement.
Jacir is a Palestinian writer and director. She is also the founder of Philistine Films, a production house based in Palestine and Jordan, that supports emerging independent Arab cinema. Palestine 36 follows Yusuf, a young man navigating political unrest in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Al Basma during the 1936 revolt against British colonial rule. It will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 5 September.
Born in Syria, Ali studied mass media at Damascus University before obtaining a degree from the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute in Kolkata and from the Busan Asian Film Academy. Colored Sweets is his first feature film. Set in the strife-torn Kashmir of 1995, it tells the story of two siblings that embark on a journey to taste sweets.
