Samar Abu-Ghazaleh is a Jordanian filmmaker. When she turned 18, Samar moved to Washington, DC to attend university. She left soon after, traveling from China to Canada trying to - as she puts it, quite sardonically - ‘find herself’ while writing as much as she could.

Although she always found comfort in movies, Samar is a painter and writer at heart. It wasn’t until she found herself assisting the producers and the director on location in Wadi Rum for the filming of Dune, getting to witness first hand a master of his craft, Denis Villeneuve at work that she realized that films at their very best are a bewitching combination of good old fashioned story telling and moving art works.

She was invited to visit the set of Dune in Budapest. Being on a monumental set standing in Castle Caladin was the final nail in the coffin, she was no longer lost. Samar attended a film program in Rome shortly thereafter.

Samar produced and directed her first short film ‘Diving for Pearls’ based on a script she had written during her time in Italy. She’s currently working the final touches, while looking for inspiration for her next script.

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