Muayad Alayan is a Palestinian film director and producer whose award-winning work has been distributed globally, featured at prominent festivals, and seen by audiences all over the world.
His directorial debut, LOVE, THEFT AND OTHER ENTANGLEMENTS (Palestine 2015), premiered in Panorama at the Berlinale in 2015. His second feature film, THE REPORTS ON SARAH AND SALEEM (Palestine / Netherlands / Germany / Mexico 2018), won the Special Jury Prize of the Rotterdam Hivos Tiger Competition and the Hubert Bals Audience Award. It won top prizes at Seattle International Film Festival and Durban International Film Festival and has been distributed in over 50 territories.
Alayan’s first narrative short, LESH SABREEN?, premiered in competition at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 2009. His third feature, A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM (Palestine / United Kingdom / Germany / Netherlands / Qatar 2023), premiered in Rotterdam and was nominated for the UNESCO Gandhi Medal and for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and was acquired by Netflix for MENA.
Muayad worked extensively with youth and community centers and non-governmental organizations on projects promoting cinema culture and cinema infrastructure in Palestine. He also acted as an instructor of directing and cinematography at several academic institutions. Alayan is a member of the European Film Academy and has occasionally served as a jury member on several international and regional film festivals and funds.