Art & Culture

What Can Cinema Learn From Content Creators? 10 Lessons From Omar Rammal and Omar Farooq

BYMeriem Belhiba

August 3, 2026

At the seventh edition of the Amman International Film Festival – Awal Film (AIFF), Palestinian filmmaker Omar Rammal joined Bahraini filmmaker and content creator Omar Farooq for a panel titled “What Can Cinema Learn From Influencers?”

Both arrived at the festival not only as speakers, but as participating filmmakers. Rammal presented his narrative short Kentucky Gaza, while Farooq participated with Salem Not Salem. The two have also worked together at the intersection of cinema and digital content, collaborating on widely viewed videos about Palestine, with Farooq later supporting Rammal during the making of Kentucky Gaza.

Their shared experience gave the panel particular weight. Rather than discussing the relationship between cinema and social media in the abstract, they spoke as creators who have built large online audiences, worked together on cinematic digital projects, and confronted the practical demands of developing their own films.

Moderated by Sudanese writer and producer Lubna Bagsai at the Film Industry Center, the conversation explored the tensions between the two worlds, from algorithms, virality, and instant audience feedback to funding, large crews, script development, and the patience required to complete a film.

These are the 10 major lessons gleaned from their conversation.

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A post shared by Amman Int’l Film Festival – Awal Film (@ammanfilm)

The panel began with a reminder that storytelling is much older than either cinema or the internet. Stories have travelled through religion, mythology, oral traditions, cave drawings, and every other form humans have invented to communicate experience.

Cinema and social media are therefore not entirely separate worlds. They are two contemporary versions of the same basic impulse: to turn life into a narrative and share it with others.

This framing helped move the conversation beyond the usual argument over whether content creators are “real” filmmakers. The more useful question is not which medium is more legitimate, but how each one approaches storytelling, audiences, time, and emotion.

The tools may change, but the desire remains the same. People still want to tell stories, recognize themselves in them, and understand the world through the experiences of others.

Content Creators Learn to Build With Almost Nothing

One of the clearest advantages content creators bring into cinema is self-sufficiency. Farooq described content creation as a process in which one person often develops the idea, writes it, shoots it, performs in it, edits it, selects the music, publishes it, markets it, and studies how the audience responds.

Working this way teaches creators to produce with limited budgets, small teams, and whatever resources are immediately available. A video does not necessarily stop because there is no formal funding structure or large production crew.

That instinct can be useful in cinema, especially for first-time filmmakers. Content creators are often less afraid of beginning before every condition is perfect. They know how to improvize, make decisions quickly, and build something from very little.

At the same time, that independence can become difficult to abandon. Cinema eventually requires creators to accept that they cannot control every role alone.

Cinema Forces You to Trust Other People

The transition from digital content to filmmaking is not simply a question of working with a larger camera or producing a longer video. It requires an entirely different relationship with collaboration.

Farooq explained that he was accustomed to thinking about every part of a production at once. On social media, that is often necessary. In cinema, however, a crew may include dozens of people, each responsible for a specific department.

The director has to trust actors, cinematographers, assistant directors, editors, producers, costume designers, sound teams, and everyone else involved in building the film. That division of labour initially felt unfamiliar. Farooq had to learn that his role was not to micromanage every detail but to concentrate on the responsibilities assigned to him and allow others to do their work.

For creators accustomed to total control, this can feel like losing authority. In reality, it is one of cinema’s central disciplines. A film becomes stronger when one person’s vision can survive and grow through collaboration.

Rammal spoke candidly about entering his first film with the confidence of someone who had already created widely viewed social media videos. When a short video can reach millions of people quickly, it becomes tempting to believe that filmmaking will simply be the same process on a larger scale. Rammal quickly discovered otherwise.

The screenplay was not fully ready when shooting began, the preparation was incomplete, and the editing process stretched far longer than expected. What appeared simple from the outside became an exhausting process of rewriting, restructuring, and learning through mistakes.

Cinema, he suggested, dismantled the ego he had developed through digital success.

Virality can prove that a creator understands attention, timing, or a particular audience. It does not automatically mean they understand screenwriting, directing actors, sustaining a narrative, or completing a film.

The experience did not make him regret entering cinema. It made him understand how much more there was to learn.

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A post shared by عمر فاروق Omar Farooq (@omr94)

Social media is built around immediacy. A creator can develop an idea, produce it, publish it, and receive reactions within the same day. Cinema moves differently.

Scripts may go through many drafts. Funding can take months to secure. Production requires long preparation. Editing may continue for a year or more. Even after a film is completed, filmmakers wait for submissions, selections, screenings, and audience reactions.

Farooq admitted that this pace was especially difficult for him. He was used to making videos continuously and seeing results almost instantly. The idea of waiting months for funding or development felt almost impossible.

Rammal also described himself as patient on the surface but internally impatient. Both speakers had to learn that cinema does not reward urgency in the same way social media does.

Its slowness can be frustrating, but it is also part of what allows a story to deepen. Cinema asks creators not only whether they can make something, but whether they can stay with it long enough for it to become fully realized.

The First Three Seconds Can Teach Cinema Something

Social media forces creators to think very carefully about attention.

Farooq explained that the opening seconds of a video are crucial. A viewer scrolling through a platform needs an immediate reason to stop. There must be information, tension, surprise, or a question strong enough to make them continue.

Digital platforms also give creators unusually precise information about audience behaviour. They can see how long viewers watched, when they left, what they replayed, and which moments generated comments or shares. Over time, this creates a highly developed instinct for pacing.

Cinema should not copy the speed of social media or treat every film like a short-form video. But filmmakers can still learn from the seriousness with which content creators consider the audience’s attention.

Too often, films assume that viewers will remain engaged simply because the work is formally cinematic. Social media teaches the opposite lesson: attention must be earned continuously.

Relatability Can Matter More Than Technical Perfection

On social media, a phone video may perform better than footage shot with an expensive camera. A casual selfie may generate more engagement than a carefully composed portrait. Imperfect framing, unstable movement, or unfinished-looking footage can sometimes feel more immediate and honest.

Farooq explained that he occasionally reduces the polish of a video deliberately. Footage may remain handheld, slightly unfocused, or minimally colour-graded because too much perfection can create distance between the creator and the audience.

This does not mean that poor production is always more authentic. It means that audiences respond not only to image quality but to whether something feels accessible, spontaneous, and emotionally close.

Cinema is often trained to remove every visible imperfection. Social media understands that some imperfections can create trust.

The lesson is not to abandon craft, but to remember that technical beauty is not automatically the same thing as emotional connection.

Cinema Needs to Speak to People Beyond the Film World

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A post shared by Omar Rammal (@omar_rammal)

Rammal argued that filmmakers sometimes become too focused on how other filmmakers, critics, juries, or festival audiences will judge their work.

Content creators operate under a different pressure. They are constantly asking whether ordinary viewers will understand the story, connect with it, and care enough to continue watching. This can make digital storytelling feel more direct and less burdened by cultural gatekeeping.

For Rammal, one of the most valuable things content creators can bring to cinema is a closer relationship with the public. They understand how people speak, what they recognize, and what kinds of emotions make a story feel immediate.

That does not mean every film should become commercially simple or designed around algorithms. But cinema can become detached when it speaks mainly to its own professional circles.

A story can be formally ambitious, politically complex, and artistically rigorous while still caring whether people feel something.

Boldness Helps, but Preparation Still Matters

Both speakers admired the fearlessness with which some YouTubers and content creators have entered cinema. Because they are less burdened by industry conventions, they may be more willing to experiment, take financial risks, or begin a film without waiting for institutional approval.

That boldness can produce unexpected success. Content creators often arrive with an existing audience, a strong understanding of entertainment, and fewer assumptions about what a film is supposed to look like.

Rammal recognized that same impulsiveness in himself. He wanted to shoot quickly, move fast, and trust that problems could be solved later.

But he also acknowledged the cost. Inadequate preparation affected the screenplay, rehearsals, and production. What felt like courage could easily become recklessness.

The lesson is not that filmmakers should wait forever or allow funding systems to paralyse them. It is that bravery works best when combined with craft. “Let’s try” can be a powerful creative philosophy, but it cannot replace writing, preparation, and respect for the process.

The Future Belongs to Creators Who Understand Both Languages

Neither Rammal nor Farooq believes cinema and social media will become completely identical.The two forms still have different aims, production cultures, and relationships with audiences.

Social media prioritizes immediacy, repetition, relatability, and constant feedback. Cinema depends more heavily on sustained development, collective work, performance, visual construction, and patience.

But the panel suggested that some of the most interesting future work may emerge from creators who understand both languages.

Content creators can bring audience awareness, speed, boldness, and adaptability into cinema. Filmmakers can bring structure, depth, performance, and artistic intention into social media.

The goal is not to turn every film into content or every social video into cinema. It is to recognize that each form has developed strengths the other often lacks.

The creators best positioned for the future may be those who can move between both worlds without treating either one as inferior.

What Can Cinema Learn From Content Creators? 10 Lessons From Omar Rammal and Omar Farooq

Content Creators Learn to Build With Almost Nothing

Cinema Forces You to Trust Other People

The First Three Seconds Can Teach Cinema Something

Relatability Can Matter More Than Technical Perfection

Cinema Needs to Speak to People Beyond the Film World

Boldness Helps, but Preparation Still Matters

The Future Belongs to Creators Who Understand Both Languages

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Topics

What Can Cinema Learn From Content Creators? 10 Lessons From Omar Rammal and Omar Farooq

Storytelling Came Before Cinema and Social Media

Content Creators Learn to Build With Almost Nothing

Cinema Forces You to Trust Other People

Social Media Success Can Give Filmmakers False Confidence

Cinema Teaches Patience in a Way Social Media Cannot

The First Three Seconds Can Teach Cinema Something

Relatability Can Matter More Than Technical Perfection

Cinema Needs to Speak to People Beyond the Film World

Boldness Helps, but Preparation Still Matters

The Future Belongs to Creators Who Understand Both Languages

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