20 May Cannes Docs – Doc In Progress Winner 2025
IEFTA awarded their €10,000 Docs-in-Progress cash prize at this year’s Cannes Docs at Marché du Film to “Asphalt” (Jordan) a compelling film directed by Hamsa Hamideh, and produced by Mahmoud Massad.
The documentary is about 20-year-old Debs, a Palestinian refugee from the Baqa’a camp in Jordan, dreaming of marrying his beloved. He’s forced to postpone his wedding due to the death of his relatives in Gaza – embodying the suffering of an entire generation that has grown up in exile over the decades and within Palestinian refugee camps.
Hamsa Hamideh
DIRECTOR
Hamza Hamideh achieved his B.A. degree in Software engineering from the University of Zarqa. His passion for photography began at an early age in his small neighbourhood in Hashmi Shamali in Jordan where he started taking pictures of his surroundings and experimenting with photography which led him to develop an interest in storytelling.
Hamza received his first grant to make a documentary project from the American embassy in Jordan and the RFC to create his first short documentary “Mahareb”.
He participated in numerous documentary and short filmmaking and storytelling workshops in Amman organised by the American Embassy in Jordan, Al Jazeera channel, and the Royal Film Commission (RFC) to help me gain a better understanding of this form of art.
This year, his latest documentary, Asphalt was selected to take part in the Cannes film festival – docs in progress section and his project was awarded 3 prizes.
He was also selected by the RFC to travel to Los Angeles to attend an international workshop by design certificate program organised by the University of California.
Mahmoud Al Massad
PRODUCER
Mahmoud Al Massad is a Jordanian-Dutch filmmaker whose work confronts harsh realities with a signature blend of irony and dark humoUr. His visually striking documentaries explore identity, displacement, and resilience in the Arab world through an audaciously original lens.
Emerging from Zarqa, Jordan, Al Massad broke onto the international scene with Recycle (2007), winner of Sundance’s World Cinematography Award. Films like This Is My Picture When I Was Dead and the darkly comedic Blessed Benefit showcase his ability to fuse biting wit with profound socio-political insight, defying conventional storytelling.
Premiering at Cannes, Toronto film festival, and IDFA, his work is celebrated for its fearless originality. His latest documentary in production, Asphalt won 3 awards at Cannes festival in 2025.