About AFF

The Arab Film Festival Rotterdam is an artistic forum showing a nuanced image of the cultural, political, social and artistic situation in the Arab world. We programme films about hot topics in the Arab communities in Europe.

By doing this, Arab Film Festival creates space for an open dialogue about art, human rights, emancipation and political freedom in Arab countries, in Europe as a whole and in the Netherlands in particular.


Dutch citizens with Arab roots get the chance to stay updated on the latest developments in their countries of origin in a way that goes beyond official media, mosques or their own social networks. The Arab Film Festival offers a good occasion to attract urban youth that generally don’t feel attracted to mainstream cultural events.

Combined Activities

workshops & masterclasses

The Arab Film Festival considers the development of young talents of the utmost importance and therefore organizes workshops and masterclasses by international filmmakers. Furthermore, we dedicate a part of the program to experimental films and developing talent.

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The Organizers

The Arab Film Festival is organized by the Foundation WaaR Art and Culture. The foundation has several goals including promoting nuanced imaging in the cultural and societal atmosphere by producing or employment of audiovisual tools.

The board of the foundation consists of:

Christiaan van Schermbeek
Carla Tjon
Ingrid Rollema
Shariff Nasr

The Arab Film Festival is a ‘Public Benefit Organisation’.
ANBI

The foundation strives to realize its goal by a number of means such as:

  • producing audio-visual tools and products and encouraging others to do so
  • organizing workshops, art and film festivals as well as other events in which audio-visual media are preferably one of the employed disciplines and encouraging others to do so.
  • all other visual tools that stimulate this goal.
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