Ihab Jadallah

Holding a Space for Complexity, Humanity, and Healing through the Art of Cinema
 

In an era of crisis marked by political rupture, cultural erosion, and war, the Sam Spiegel Film & Television School Jerusalem has been called to respond not only as an academic and artistic institution, but as a community guided by values; a reflection on the role of courageous and compassionate leadership in a harsh and changing world, where maintaining human decency becomes a daily act of resistance.

Amid judicial overhaul and continuous regional turmoil, the school has worked to safeguard creative freedom and shared learning spaces. During the ongoing war, it has provided full scholarships, trauma-informed academic support, and emotional care to students facing displacement, grief, and uncertainty. Its Arabic-speaking study programs for Palestinian talents and creatives have remained active, fostering dialogue in the face of division, manifesting efforts to remain present, even in a multi-frontier, violent reality.

This keynote explores how film education can play an impactful role for the school’s community and extend to an act of civic courage, guided by conviction, grounded in compassion - asking how we as educators can hold space for complexity, humanity, and healing through the art of cinema.

 

Ihab Jadallah graduated from Centre de Estudis Cinematogràfics de Catalunya CECC, Award-winning Palestinian filmmaker and screenwriter Ihab Jadallah is a lecturer and mentor at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School Jerusalem. He has written, directed, and produced award-winning short films and documentaries, including The Shooter and The Flower Seller selected for competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. Ihab completed his first feature film, Desert Dogs, shot independently in Bethlehem and Jericho. His screenplays for his subsequent feature films were developed at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, the Sundance Directors Lab, TorinoFilmLab, and the Sam Spiegel Film Lab.  In addition to directing and producing, Ihab worked as a 1st AD on Muayad Elayan’s Love, Theft and Other Entanglement (Panorama, Berlinale), Academy Award Nominated film Omar by Hany Abu Assad (Jury Prize, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival), Salt of This Sea by Annemarie Jacir (Official Selection, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival) and Laila’s Birthday by Rashid Masharawi.