Emirati Poet, Artist and Film Director, UAE
Nujoom Alghanem is an Emirati poet, artist, and film director. She was born in Dubai, UAE, 1962 and has published 11 poetry collections in the Arabic language. Her work has been translated to several languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, and more.
Nujoom is also a renowned filmmaker. She has produced numerous films including seven feature documentaries, short fiction, short documentaries, and art films. Her films have won over 40 regional and international prizes.
Her achievements in the arts have been recognized both nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of the Pride of the UAE Medal through the Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award and the Rashid Award for Scientific Outstanding.
In 2019, she was the solo artist of the UAE National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and in 2017, she was one of five artists that had participated in the same pavilion.
Alghanem started her professional career in the early 1980s as a journalist for more than ten years and was the head of the cultural department for Dubai and the Northern Offices of Al-Ittihad Newspaper, the first regular publication of the UAE. She then became head of training and human resources development at the Emirates Media Incorporated in Abu Dhabi and finally the director of the new media division at the same organization.
She is a member of Board of Trustees of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction
Was one of the founding members of the Emirates Writers’ Union in 1984 and used to be a board member of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.
In 2010, Nujoom co-founded Nahar Productions, a film production company based in Dubai. Since then, alongside her artistic endeavors, she has worked as a professional trainer in filmmaking and creative writing and as a cultural consultant.
She is the holder of a master’s degree in film production from Griffith University in Australia and a Bachelor’s degree in video production from Ohio University in the United States.