Jordan Expands Film Ties With China at Shanghai
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- Jordan's Royal Film Commission is backing two Jordanian films at the Shanghai Film Festival — Zaid Abu Hamdan's crime thriller "Boomah" (world premiere in the Asian New Talent competition) and Zain Duraie's family drama "Sink" (Asian Collection sidebar) — with landing Chinese distribution deals as a primary objective.
- The RFC is signing a memorandum of understanding with the China Film Administration in Beijing, which communications manager Ahmad Al Khatib called "of strategic importance" as a gateway to working with the Chinese film industry.
- The Royal Film Commission is joining the Belt and Road Film Alliance, a network of 57 festivals and film agencies from 50 countries focused on cinematic, cultural, and industrial exchange.
- Jordan-China film ties have been building over two years: a 2024 Beijing Film Festival-organized event in Amman, an RFC exploratory visit to China in 2025, and Chinese Film Days hosted in Jordan that same year.
- Jordan's Shanghai campaign trades on ancient Silk Road heritage, pairing Petra with the Great Wall of China in artwork tagged "Wonder to Wonder" and referencing the historic trade route that connected Petra to the Chinese city of Dunhuang.
- Jordan raised its filming cash rebate to 45% of local spend with additional tax exemptions and opened the Olivewood Film Studios complex in Amman in 2023, with the studio now placing "strong emphasis on Asia and India as key growth markets."
- The U.S. and Israeli war against Iran has caused project cancellations for shoots planned in Jordan this year, though Al Khatib said he expects queries and new productions to resume once the fighting ends.
Why it matters: China is the world's largest film market, and Jordan's MOU with the China Film Administration plus its Belt and Road Film Alliance membership give Jordanian filmmakers a direct institutional path into Chinese distribution and co-productions. That pipeline becomes more than symbolic given that Middle East conflict has already cost Jordan shooting projects this year — the Shanghai push doubles as a geographic hedge for a small industry whose traditional Western clients are pulling back.
