Inaugural Sharjah Film Platform Feature Fund announces two winners for prize
- Last updated: November 9, 2025 | 10:56
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) recently announced the winners of its inaugural Sharjah Film Platform (SFP) Feature Fund. The Dhs500,000 grant is split equally between Annemarie Jacir and Mohamad W. Ali for their projects Palestine 36 (2025) and Colored Sweets (2026), respectively.
Palestine’s official submission for the 2025 Academy Awards, Palestine 36, is a period drama. The film follows Yusuf, a young man navigating the political unrest on the streets of Jerusalem as well as Jaffa and Al Basma during the 1936 revolt against colonial rule, one of the largest uprisings against the British Empire.
Jacir’s most ambitious project to date, the film features Hiam Abbass, Saleh Bakri, Yasmine Al Massri and Jeremy Irons. Palestine 36 premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 5. Mohamad W. Ali’s debut feature Colored Sweets tells the story of two children living in a remote Kashmiri village during the winter of 1995. With Eid around the corner, the siblings embark on a journey to taste the colourful sweets they had only heard about. Full of laughter and wonder, the film is a tender tale about patience, poverty and the quiet resilience of children in strife-torn Kashmir in the 1990s.
The decision to divide the grant equally between the two film projects was made unanimously by the jury consisting of Sohail Dahdal (award-winning filmmaker and professor of media, American University of Sharjah), Suha Arraf (award-winning filmmaker and script doctor), Talal Afifi, (founder of the Sudan Film Factory and President of the Sudan Independent Film Festival) and Nawar Al Qassimi (Vice President, Sharjah Art Foundation).
“Both films present urgent and resonant stories that promise to make a lasting impact on Arab, Asian and global cinema,” said the jury. “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. We believe it is especially important to support Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 as it is a film that revives buried memory and restores the prerogative of storytelling to its rightful owners, particularly in a time of censorship and propaganda against the Palestinian people.”
Colored Sweets, Mohamad W. Ali’s debut feature, the jury noted, tells a poignant story of children’s hope and joy amid strife, carrying a universal resonance. The filmed sequences are breathtaking, capturing stunning natural landscapes with poetic cinematography that reflects the director’s sensitivity, passion and genuine love for cinema. “We have full confidence in his exceptional talent and ability to deliver a powerful and meaningful cinematic work,” said the jury.
Living and working in Palestine, Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced more than 16 films. Her movies have premiered in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam and Toronto. All three of her feature films were selected as Palestine’s official Academy Award entries. Her short film, Like Twenty Impossible (2003), was the first Arab short film to be selected in Cannes and made finalist for the Academy Awards. Jacir is a member of the Asia of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, AMPAS and BAFTA. In 2024, the Toronto International Film Festival hosted her retrospective. In the same year, she was granted a BlackStar Luminary Award.
Born in Syria and educated in India and South Korea, Mohamad W. Ali has directed seven short fiction films. He is a filmmaker whose work draws from life in war zones and everyday human resilience. He studied mass media at Damascus University and later Film Direction and Screenplay Writing at the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute in India and Busan Asian Film Academy in South Korea. His fiction and documentary films explore themes of childhood, war, displacement and memory. Ali is the first Arab filmmaker to shoot an Arabic fiction film in India and a short fiction in South Korea. His work has received 14 international awards and been screened in more than 100 festivals.
SFP is an annual festival of independent cinema and experimental filmmaking where audiences can discover new approaches to film and art. The 10-day event, which includes a range of regional and international films, talks by filmmakers and industry professionals, workshops and gatherings, is centred around Mirage City Cinema, the open-air theatre in Sharjah’s historical quarter.
Organised by SAF, SFP spotlights recent cinematic achievements by international filmmakers and artists, noteworthy classics from around the region as well as experimental films that challenge the idea of films as they are created today. Palestine 36 and Colored Sweets will be screened at future editions of SFP. SAF is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art within the emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. It supports the production and presentation of contemporary art.
The Foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; commissions and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.
SAF hosts year-round exhibitions, performances, screenings and educational programmes in the city of Sharjah and across the emirate, often hosted in historic buildings that have been repurposed as cultural and community centres. Its growing collection is a reflection of its support of contemporary artists who produce new work, as it is also of its recognition of the contributions made by pioneering modern artists from the region and around the world.