Meet the Team
Darin J. Sallam
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Writer & Director
Jordanian writer/director of Palestinian roots Darin J. Sallam holds an MFA from the Red Sea Institute for Cinematic Arts (RSICA), affiliated with the University of Southern California.
To her credit are 5 award-winning shorts, including THE DARK OUTSIDE (2012) and THE PARROT (2016).
A Berlinale Talent 2021, a Robert Bosch 2015 Film Prize recipient and recently inducted into the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy, Sallam was selected to the 2017 La Cité Internationale des Arts residency in Paris and to the 2018 Global Media Makers fellowship by Film Independent in Los Angeles. She was a jury member at international film festivals and is co-founder & managing partner at the Amman-based production company TaleBox.
Her critically acclaimed debut feature film FARHA (2021) had its world premiere at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival, won 12 awards to date from international film festivals including best film, best director, the jury award, the audience award and the grand prize and started streaming in December 2022 on Netflix worldwide. FARHA was also selected as Jordan’s entry in the International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards (Oscars) in 2023 and achieved a historic first win for Jordan by receiving the Best Youth Film award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), known as “the Asian Oscars”, making Sallam the first Jordanian director ever to be awarded an APSA.
More recently, Sallam was named among Variety’s Impactful International Women of 2023 and received the IMEU (Institute of Middle East Understanding) Storyteller Award 2023.
Deema Azar
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Producer & Script Consultant
Deema Azar is a Jordanian film producer and script consultant. She is also co-founder and managing partner at TaleBox, a Amman-based production company which fosters new talents in Jordan and the Arab World.
Azar occupied the position of Regional Training Manager at the Royal Film Commission – Jordan between 2012 and 2016. She was also Head of Industry at the inaugural edition of the Amman International Film Festival in 2020.
Azar produced Darin J. Sallam's award-winning debut feature film FARHA (2021). The film had its world premiere at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival 2021, was selected as Jordan’s official entry to the 95th Academy Awards (Oscars) 2023 and received the Best Youth Film award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (the Asian Oscars), marking a historic first win for Jordan at APSA. She also produced the short film THE PARROT (2016), winner of the 2015 Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
A member of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and a Torino Film Lab Story Editing program alumna, Azar is also a script consultant who advised for several film entities regionally and internationally in addition to privately consulting on film projects.
Ayah Jardaneh
Producer - Consultant
Ayah Jardaneh is a Jordanian-Palestinian producer. She holds a B.A. in Interactive Multimedia and Design from Carleton University and Algonquin College, Canada. She also obtained certificates in producing from the New York Film Academy, PGA certificate, and 3D intensive from VanArts.
Jardaneh worked on numerous productions including: UNDER THE SHADOW (2016), winner of BAFTA for Outstanding Debut; THE PARROT (2016) which premiered at the 2016 Dubai International Film Festival and THE GREAT ARAB REVOLT (2017).
Jardaneh recently produced FARHA, Darin J. Sallam’s award-winning debut fiction feature which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, received the Best Youth Film award at the 15th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, marking a historic first win for Jordan at APSA, received another eleven awards to date and was selected to represent Jordan at the 95th Academy Awards (Oscars 2023) in the international feature film category.
Jardaneh is also a member of the prestigious Asia Pacific Screen Academy.