Biography
Abdulrahman Al Jandal is a Saudi filmmaker, actor, and former national wrestling champion. His films have earned 37 international awards across Europe, Asia, and North America, and his work is recognized for combining physical intensity with emotionally driven storytelling, often exploring themes of resilience, identity, and sacrifice.
Before filmmaking, Al Jandal competed in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling with Al-Ittifaq Club in Khobar between 2000 and 2008, earning 16 national championship titles. He began performing in theater in 1998 and later moved into commercial acting before relocating to the United States in 2011 to pursue filmmaking. He studied Electronic Media Production at Kent State University before completing a BFA in Filmmaking and Cinematography at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles.
Al Jandal’s films have been recognized in categories including Best Director, Best Actor, Best Action Film, Best Sports Film, Best Indie Film, and Best Short Film, with honors from the Florence Film Awards (Italy), Budapest Film Festival, Seoul International Short Film Festival (South Korea), Hollywood Gold Awards, and Sweet Democracy Film Awards in Cannes (France). Films including RAGE, Street 105, and JABER helped raise the profile of his work and of Saudi independent cinema.
His first widely seen work was Thanawyat AlNaseem (2024), his directorial debut series, released on Shahid. It became a major success across the Arab world and reached audiences well beyond the region.
In 2019, his short film JABER was selected among the Saudi films presented at the European Film Market, held alongside the Berlin International Film Festival, contributing to Saudi Arabia’s growing presence in global film markets.
Al Jandal is developing The Saudi Wrestler: JABER, a feature film for which he serves as creator, director, and lead actor. The story follows a former Greco-Roman wrestler forced back into competition to save his father from a death sentence, exploring father-son relationships, brotherhood, and redemption.
