Nujoom Alghanem

Nujoom Alghanem (b. 1962, Dubai) is an Emirati film director, poet and artist. She was born and raised in Dubai. She began working as a journalist in 1980 and stayed in the field for more than ten years. She went on to study video production at Ohio University (BA, 1996) and film production at Griffith University in Australia (MA, 1999).

Her first poetry collection, Masaa Al-Janah (Evening of Heaven), appeared in 1989, and seven more have followed. Her films number more than twenty and include short fiction and feature documentaries, often centred on women. She co-founded Nahar Productions, a film company in Dubai. In 1984 she helped to found the Emirates Writers' Union.

At the 2019 Venice Biennale she was the only artist shown in the UAE's national pavilion. She had shown in the 2017 pavilion with four other artists. Her documentaries have won prizes at the Dubai International Film Festival (2017) and the Baghdad International Film Festival (2011). Her work Last Night Dream is in the Barjeel Art Foundation collection.