Palestine 36 Reaches Oscars After Filming Against All Odds
Director Annemarie Jacir refused to give up on her vision, insisting on filming in Jerusalem even when war threatened to shut down production entirely. Her historical epic just made the Oscar shortlist and won Best Film at Tokyo International Film Festival.
When war shut down her film production in 2023, director Annemarie Jacir faced an impossible choice: film her historical epic somewhere safer, or wait for a chance to return home to Palestine.
She chose to wait. And that decision just paid off with an Oscar shortlist nomination.
Palestine 36 tells the story of the 1936 Palestinian revolt against British colonial rule through multiple perspectives: young rebels, farmers under siege, journalists seeking truth, and children born into violence. It's the only feature film shot in Palestine in the past two years.
Jacir and her producers scouted backup locations across Cyprus, Greece, and Malta. But the director held firm on one scene that had to be filmed in Jerusalem: a little girl running along the ancient city walls.
"The producers were saying we need to think about filming elsewhere," Jacir says. "I kept saying it might look like another old city to you, but to us, it's not another old city."
After relocating to Jordan to film additional scenes, Jacir's team returned to Palestine a year later to complete shooting. The cast and crew pushed through checkpoints and obstacles daily, united by a shared mission to tell their story.
"We all felt that suddenly it had a different meaning," Jacir says. "All of it had a different meaning."
Every cast member had a family connection to the 1936 period. Actor Saleh Bakri brought a photograph of his grandfather who worked on the docks and asked to model his character's appearance after him.
The Bright Side
Palestine 36 premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival to a 20-minute standing ovation. Months later, it won Best Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival before landing on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best International Feature Film.
The film represents years of painstaking research and cultural preservation, putting a rarely told chapter of history on screen. For Jacir, the recognition validates the risks her team took to complete their vision.
"We're putting something on screen that hasn't been put on screen before," she says. "It's our story and we have to honor it."
The journey from shutdown to Oscar recognition proves that some stories demand to be told, no matter the obstacles.
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Based on reporting by ABC Australia
This story was written by BrightWire based on verified news reports.
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