1. Home
  2. About Karama Human Rights Film Festival

About Karama Human Rights Film Festival

About Karama Human Rights Film Festival (HRFF)

Established in Jordan in 2010, the Karama Human Rights Film Festival (Karama HRFF) is the first human rights film festival in the country and one of the leading cultural and human rights platforms in the region.

Karama offers audiences a unique cinematic and cultural experience through film screenings, discussions, workshops, performances, and multidisciplinary artistic events that explore pressing human rights issues in the MENA region and beyond. The festival aims to encourage critical thinking, civic engagement, and dialogue through the power of cinema and the arts.

Held annually in Amman, Karama HRFF presents a six-day international programme featuring films, visual arts, music, seminars, forums, and exhibitions that create spaces for exchange, reflection, and collaboration between filmmakers, artists, activists, and audiences.

Since its establishment, the festival has screened more than 900 films from over 66 countries, including documentaries, feature fiction, short fiction, and animated films. Karama continues to support artistic expression as a tool for social impact, resistance, and human connection.

Karama HRFF Programming & Activities

1. Main Screening Programme

  • Opening Ceremony & Empty Chair Tribute
  • Closing Ceremony & Karama Feather Awards
  • ANHAR Network Award for Best Human Rights Film in the Arab World

2. Karama Intellectual Programmes

  • Annual Youth Forum
  • Annual Human Rights Symposium
  • “The Must Meet Meeting” for audiovisual professionals
  • Solidarity Screenings and thematic discussion panels

3. Performance & Fine Arts

  • “Conscience of Art” Exhibition
  • “MusiKarama” Annual Music Performance

4. Outreach Programme

  • Screenings at universities and schools
  • Screenings across Jordanian governorates

Karama HRFF Objectives

Karama HRFF aims to:

  1. Foster deeper understanding of human rights issues through cinema and the arts.
  2. Encourage dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement around human rights.
  3. Empower youth and expand outreach to communities across Jordan.
  4. Strengthen networking opportunities for filmmakers, artists, and human rights activists.
  5. Attract new audiences to human rights platforms through multidisciplinary cultural programming.