Muayad Alayan is a Palestinian film director and producer based in Jerusalem. His second feature film The Reports on Sarah and Saleem premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it won the Special Jury Prize of the Hivos Tiger Competition and the Hubert Bals Audience Award. It was also awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival and Best Feature Film at the Durban International Film Festival. The film, which was supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, the Berlinale World Cinema Fund and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture AFAC, has been distributed in over 30 territories.
His directorial feature debut Love, Theft and Other Entanglements, premiered at the Berlinale Panorama in 2015 and went on to win two Best Arab Narrative Film awards as well as be nominated for several First Feature awards at the Berlinale, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Taipei International Film Festival, the Carthage Film Festival and others. It has been distributed in over 20 territories.
Alayan’s first narrative short, Lesh Sabreen, premiered in competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and went on to compete at several other major festivals including Aspen Shortsfest, Cinemed, Palm Springs Shortfest and the Dubai International Film Festival, in addition to over 60 other festivals worldwide.
Alayan has worked extensively with youth and community centres and non-governmental organisations on projects promoting cinema culture and cinema infrastructure in Palestine. He has also acted as an instructor of directing and cinematography at several academic institutions. Alayan has occasionally served as a jury member on several international and regional film festivals and funds.
A House in Jerusalem is Alayan’s first English-language film. He is currently in development of his first US-set feature film.
