List of Jordanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film
Jordan is one of about 100 countries that submit films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Its first submission was in 2008.
What the award is: Each year the Academy honors a feature-length film produced outside the United States with primarily non-English dialogue. A Foreign Language Film Award Committee reviews all submissions and votes by secret ballot to select five nominees.
Jordan’s first submission, Captain Abu Raed (2008), was the country’s first feature film in more than fifty years. It tells the story of an airport janitor who is mistaken for a pilot by a group of orphans. Directed by Amin Matalqa, a Los Angeles–based filmmaker who studied in the United States, the film was praised by some Oscar pundits and won Sundance’s World Cinema prize in 2008, but it did not make the final nine-film shortlist.
As of 2025, Jordan has submitted nine films and earned one nomination: Theeb (2015), directed by Naji Abu Nowar. No Jordanian film has won the award.
A year-by-year list of Jordan’s submissions exists.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:58 (CET).