The Giordani film industry will be at the center of this year’s Shanghai Film Festival, celebrating the premiere of two Jordanian films at the event and exploring closer cooperation with China and other global partners.
With Asia currently leading the global box office and Hollywood being overwhelmed by local films from around the world, this is an opportunity for Jordan to strengthen its domestic industry and expand internationally.
Jordan’s Royal Film Commission (RFC) will support Zeid Abu Hamdan’s gritty crime thriller “Boomah,” which will have its world premiere at the Asian New Talent Competition, and Zain Duryeh’s family drama “Sink,” which will be released in the Asian Collection sidebar.
The Royal Film Commission, which is helping secure distribution deals for the two films in China, will also join the Belt and Road Film Alliance, which currently consists of 57 film festivals and film companies from 50 countries. RFC communications and culture manager Ahmad Al Khatib said the alliance offers “cinematic, cultural and industrial exchanges between its members”.
In addition to setting up a dedicated booth at the International Film and Television Market in Shanghai, RFC is organizing events at the festival to introduce Jordan’s film sector to Chinese and international industry experts.
But the most important of its many activities is the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the China Film Administration in Beijing, aimed at deepening cooperation and cooperation in film.
“This is strategically important for us because it is the gateway to actually start collaborating with the Chinese film industry,” Al Khatib explains.
The Royal Film Commission has been building relationships with the Chinese film industry over the past two years. In 2024, a dedicated event hosted by the Beijing Film Festival was held in Amman. During the visit, RFC signed a cooperation agreement with the festival that brings together Jordanian filmmakers and key players in China’s film sector.
The expansion of exchanges will continue in 2025, with RFC Managing Director Mohanad Bakri and Al Khatib making an exploratory visit to China to further develop relationships with representatives of the film and television industry and identify opportunities for future cooperation.
Later that year, RFC collaborated with the Chinese Cultural Center of Jordan to organize a Chinese Film Day and bring a Chinese delegation to Jordan. The program included film screenings, industry conferences, and opportunities for Chinese representatives to interact directly with Jordanian filmmakers and explore the local industry ecosystem.
“Building on these interactions, 2026 will be the next phase of the relationship, with Jordan being invited to the Shanghai International Film Festival and Belt and Road Film Week,” said Tara Zumot, marketing and outreach specialist at RFC. “During the visit to China, RFC also plans to sign a memorandum of understanding in Beijing, reflecting the continued development of bilateral relations.”
“At a strategic level, we wanted the Chinese film industry to consider Jordan as a filming location,” Al Khatib added.
Al-Khatib points out that the main objective is to secure distribution deals for two Jordanian films in China, with “Boomah” in particular a good example of a film that has the potential to appeal to an international audience.
Set in a marginalized community plagued by crime and violence, the film stars Rakeen Saad as a knife-wielding female gang member who becomes embroiled in a power struggle between street thugs and religious extremists, all while grappling with her own past trauma.
Al-Khatib added that “Boomer” reveals a side of Jordan that is not often depicted in movies.
For the film’s producers, the Shanghai premiere holds special significance.
“This choice is very important to us,” says producer Gianluca Chakra, founder and CEO of Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment. “Shanghai may not always attract the same attention in our region as Cannes, Venice or Berlin, but it remains one of Asia’s most important film festivals and an important gateway to the world’s largest and fastest-growing audience region.”
Chakra, who produced Boomer with Ahmad Abu Koush’s Amman-based Bounce Productions and Front Row Productions, added: “For us, Shanghai is much more than just a festival selection. It’s an opportunity to introduce this film to a new audience, open the door to the whole of China and the broader Asian market, and contribute in a small way to growing the cultural dialogue between two regions that have more in common than many realize.”
‘sink’
Provided by Tabi360
“Think,” which premiered in Toronto last year, similarly tackles the subject of mental illness, which is rarely discussed in the Arab world. The film depicts a desperate mother struggling with her teenage son’s mental illness.
Alaa Alassad, a producer at Amman-based Tabi360, is similarly eager for the film to be received in China and Asia as a whole.
“The film has been a success at international film festivals, and it’s great to see it making its way from North America to Europe and now Asia,” says Alasad. “We would like to secure a distribution deal in China. We have always found China a difficult market to penetrate, but we believe there is room for Jordanian films there. The fact that two Jordanian films will be screened in Shanghai this year says a lot about our reach.”
Another main objective of the Royal Film Commission is to attract Chinese productions to Jordan, with a view to co-productions between Jordan and China in the future.
“For us, co-production is a story that involves both countries and both cultures,” says Al Khatib. “That’s what we hope to do someday, to showcase cross-cultural stories.”
This idea is illustrated in the Royal Film Commission’s Shanghai campaign artwork depicting the ruins of Petra and the Great Wall of China, with the tagline ‘Wonder to Wonder’.
“Of course, the historical ties between Jordan and China are very much related to the Silk Road,” Al-Khatib added. In fact, the ancient city of Petra, made famous by Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was for centuries a major turning point in the ancient caravan trade through the region.
Speaking at the Chinese Film Festival in Amman last year, Bakri also highlighted the thousands of years of cultural ties between Jordan and China, exemplified by the Silk Road, which connected Petra to the ancient Chinese city of Dunhuang, which was also a major commercial hub on the famous trade route.
According to the RFC, Jordan aims to continue this cultural heritage through broader cultural and production cooperation, especially as China today represents the world’s largest film market.
As a filming location, Jordan’s extraordinary landscapes have attracted countless international productions over the years, from David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and Sam Wanamaker’s Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger to Brian De Palma’s Redacted, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films and Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36.
Last year, Jordan increased its cash rebate program to 45% of domestic spending and introduced additional tax breaks, making filming on location overseas particularly attractive.
Additionally, in 2023, the country’s first large-scale state-of-the-art studio complex opened in Amman. Olivewood Film Studios provides the infrastructure needed to accommodate all the needs of international film production, while providing a major hub for local industry.
Studios are similarly looking east for growth opportunities.
“Olive Wood’s international activities are not limited to Western markets,” explains Jumana Sharbin, General Manager of Olive Wood Film Studios. “While we continue to engage with Europe and the US, we are focused on Asia and India as key growth markets.”
Earlier this year, Prashanth Neel’s new Indian action saga Dragon was shot in the country, with key scenes shot on the red sands and towering mountains of Wadi Rum, also known as the Valley of the Moon, and in the port city of Aqaba.
A number of other international productions were scheduled to be filmed in Jordan this year, but projects were canceled due to the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Al-Khatib is hopeful that inquiries and new productions will resume once the fighting ends, but points out that the situation remains complex.
