Ayman Jamal is the founder and a producer for Barajoun Entertainment, a leading animation and visual effects studio in the MENA region, based in Dubai. His dream to tell and share the stories of forgotten heroes from time immemorial led him to initiate the formation of Barajoun Entertainment back in 2013. His passion for storytelling inspired him to direct his first full animation feature film, Bilal, which tells a story about faith, hope and courage.
Bilal drew enormous applause and gained recognition and awards worldwide since its release in 2016. The film won “Best Inspiring Movie” on Animation Day during Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and was an official selection at the Annecy Film Festival in the same year. Bilal was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), the region’s highest accolade for film and was screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York in March 2017.
We entered into the industry because we wanted to create animation that matters with stories that inspire the youth”
For Jamal, Bilal is the eye-opening realisation of his ultimate goal in life, which is to inspire other people through the power of storytelling. His work paved a way to pursue this advocacy by directing his own cinematic works and producing stories that impart values, inspirational lessons and help deliver life-changing experiences that will appeal to different generations.
Jamal was included as one of the top 10 filmmakers in the Arab world back in May 2016 in Variety magazine during Cannes Film Festival, and he recently ranked as number 31 in the list of public intellectuals in the Global Influence edition “Thought Leaders in the Arab World”.
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