Mr. Abbas Arnaout studied TV Production in Britain and came back to work in the Arab countries. He started his career as a director in “Jordan TV” then “Dubai TV”. He established Aljazeera Documentary Film Festival in 2004 and was appointed as its director.

He directed several well-known series like “Suleiman al-Halabi”, “Antar”, “The Night of Granada’s Fall”, “The Conqueror”, “Writing on Burnt Flesh”, “Very Special Invitation”, “The Knights Sheath Their Swords” and “Al-Mutannabi”. He also produced several documentary films like “Al-Khiyam Prison” and “Arab Features”. Mr. Arnaout supervised the production of the TV program “With Haikal” which was telecast on Aljazeera. He also presented programs like “The Amiriya Shelter” and “the Massacre of Qana”.

He was the chairman of the jury panel of the Tehran International Festival for Short Film Festival and the jury panel of Gaza International Documentary Film Festival. He is currently a member of the jury panel of several festivals like:  the Arab Film Festival in Paris, Fajr International Film Festival in Iran, the Amal International Euro Arab Film Festival in Spain, Bologna Film Festival, and the Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival in China.

Mr. Arnaout has written some of the best short stories like “It Happened Tomorrow”, “Water….and He Ran” and “Death to The Verge of Life”. He has also written novels like “The Voice is Calling Me” and “Al-Hallaj…The Heart Shivered With Love”. His novels are written with a mystical Sufi touch bordering on poetic lines. They also put forward rhetorical questions about love, freedom and feelings of the Absolute.