In 2023, the PFFA commemorated the 75-year anniversary of the 1948 Al Nakba (“the catastrophe”) when the mass displacement, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israeli state began. 75 Years Al Nakba, the third edition of PFFA, featured films focussing on Palestinian agriculture, landscapes and their disappearance throughout time.
Opening with the Dutch premiere of Jumana Manna’s documentary Foragers (2022), the PFFA was held during three consecutive days at an established art house movie theatre. Guest director Alia Yunis joined for a screening of her documentary The Golden Harvest (2019), which was accompanied by an olive oil tasting session, a tradition continued in the following editions of the festival.
The 2023 PFFA was catalytic in reviving an art project consisting of a private collection of archive photos that had been dormant since they were displayed at a Palestinian museum in 2009. In March 2023, gallery Bar Bario hosted a warm-up event to the festival, with the opening of the exhibition Five Minutes from Home: In Search of Jerusalem Airport, coordinated by the PFFA. The opening was accompanied by a historical documentary by Berlin-based Palestinian director and curator Nahed Awwad, who showed some of her films at the 2020 PFFA edition. These images, chronicling the search for the abandoned Jerusalem Airport, made a reappearance at the 2023 PFFA when they were exhibited in the Rialto mezzanine area.
This was also the first year that PFFA received funding from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK).
The PFFA wishes to thank everyone who contributed and donated to the 2023 edition: Dima Abu Gosh, Salim Abu Jabal, Carlos Adams, Mira Adoumier, Deborah Agre, Mara Ahmed, Ammar Al-Saleh, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Huwaida Arraf, Luay Awwad, Nahed Awwad, Frank Barat, Nai Barghouti, Bar Bario, Tewa Barnosa, Isabelle Bartter, Suzanne Bessem, Suzanne Blanchard, Fatin Bouali, Laura Brouwer, Jos van der Burg, Sanja Cekov, Cineville, Linda Cooper, Rakan Dajani, Stichting DocP, Amir Dola, Fabian Driehorst, Rukshana Edwards, Een Ander Joods Geluid, Danna Eid, Andrew Enschede, Jaime Estrada-Torres, Fairtrade Palestine, Ameer Fakhr El Din, Filmkrant, Mats Grorud, Jaap Hamburger, Maarten Hilferink, iAmsterdam, Intramovies, Mohamad Jabaly, Nina Jurna, Ameena Kaddoura, Ariane Kamminga, Rasha Kashkoush, Muna Khalidi, FotoLab Kiekie, Mies Koppelmans, Konstantin Koukias, Tomasz Kubicki, Maarten de Leede, Mad Solutions, Ahmad Mallah, Jumana Manna, Carol Mansour, Leonardo Marino, Annelies Moors, Cinta Morena, Motion Picture Solutions, Erica Moukarzel, Mohammad Al Mughaneh, Nat Muller, Linda Mutawi, Najwa Najjar, Tsolin Nalbantian, Sharif Nasr, Arab Nasser, Lana Nasser, Tarzan Nasser, Nancy Neede, The Party, Annelee ten Pas, Anisa Rabbani, Khaled Rabbani, Mouin Rabbani, Salim Rabbani, Rialto De Pijp, Karel van Riel, Anita Risseeuw, Joe Rivera, Ellen van Roij, Lisa Marie Roiter, Yara Safadi, Ahmad Saleh, André Smit, Marco de Stefanis, Juna Suleiman, Frédérique Sursock, Seijiro Takeshita, Ustura Films, Augusto Valença, Versatile Films, Vanessa Vijzelman, Voordekunst, Roger Waters, Bonnie Williams, Nicole Xavier, Alia Yunis , Said Zagha, Nadia Zerouali.
