Calendar
OPENING NIGHT: EL SETT dir. MARWAN HAMED
From a small Nile Delta village where as a girl she sang disguised as a boy, to her final concert as a woman battling illness — El Sett traces seven decades in the life of Umm Kulthum (1904–1975), the Egyptian singer who became the Voice of the Arab World.
Starring Mona Zaki in a career-defining performance, the film follows her journey from provincial obscurity to Paris, Cairo concert halls, and global legend — a woman whose voice Bob Dylan, Maria Callas, and Robert Plant all claimed as an influence.
Source: Press kit
Date:(insert screening date)
RT: 155 mins.
Director: MARWAN HAMED
COTTON QUEEN dir. SUZANNAH MIRGHANI
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, teenage Nafisa is raised on heroic tales of resistance against British colonizers, passed down by her grandmother Al-Sit, the village matriarch. When a young businessman arrives with a new development plan and genetically engineered cotton, Nafisa becomes the center of a power struggle over the village's future. Awakening to her own strength, she sets out to save the cotton fields — and herself.
Awards/Festivals: World Premiere, Venice International Film Critics' Week 2025 · Golden Alexander (top prize), Thessaloniki International Film Festival · Prix ArteKino International (development award, Cannes 2022)
RT: 93 mins.
Director: SUZANNAH MIRGHANI
CALLE MÁLAGA dir. MARYAM TOUZANI
María Ángeles is a 79-year-old Spanish woman who has lived her entire life in Tangier. She has her routines, her neighborhood, her friends — and no intention of going anywhere.
When her daughter arrives from Madrid to sell the apartment, determined to uproot her, María Ángeles fights back with everything she has. And in the process, unexpectedly rediscovers love and sensuality.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
82nd Venice Film Festival: Audience Award, Spotlight section
Toronto International Film Festival 2025: Official Selection
Morocco's official entry for the 98th Academy Awards, Best International Feature Film
RT: 116 mins.
Director: MARYAM TOUZANI
THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE dir. HASAN HADI
Iraq, 1990s. Nine-year-old Lamia has been chosen by her school to bake a cake for the President's birthday. In a country ground down by sanctions and fear, even eggs, flour, and sugar are nearly impossible to find. Accompanied by her grandmother, her loyal friend Saeed, and her pet rooster Hindi, Lamia sets off on a determined journey through the city to track down the ingredients — navigating vendors, checkpoints, and the daily contradictions of life under Saddam.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
Cannes Film Festival 2025: Caméra d'Or (best debut feature); Quinzaine des Cinéastes Audience Award
Iraq's official entry for the 98th Academy Awards, Best International Feature Film
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
RT: 105 mins.
Director: HASAN HADI
DO YOU LOVE ME
A love letter to Beirut — playful, personal, and built entirely from archival footage. Drawing on 70 years of Lebanese film, television, home videos, and photography, Do You Love Me reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers, and artists, it explores the Lebanese collective psyche: its joy and intimacy, its destruction and loss, its enduring creative spirit.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
Hamburg Film Festival 2025: Political Film Award of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Doclisboa 2025: Honorable Mention — "a poetic film in a form we have never seen before"
Cinemed 2025: Special Mention
DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival 2026: Best Film in International Competition
Festival circuit: Venice (Giornate degli Autori, world premiere) · IDFA · SXSW · CPH:DOX · Marrakech · Cairo · Göteborg · New Directors/New Films
RT: 75 mins.
Director: LANA DAHER
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH dir. ANAS BA-TAHAF
Hayat is a superstitious artist convinced she will die the night she turns 30 — just as her mother and grandmother did before her. Youssef is an introverted heart surgeon with bradycardia, a condition that slows his heartbeat to a dangerous crawl.
The only thing that raises his pulse is holding a scalpel. He has the urge to take a life. Hayat wants to die on her own terms. Fate brings them together — and then love gets in the way.
Source: Press kit
RT: 118 mins.
Director: ANAS BA-TAHAF
HAPPY BIRTHDAY dir. SARAH GOHER
Toha is an eight-year-old child maid working for a wealthy Cairo family.
When her best friend Nelly — the employer's daughter — is about to have a birthday party, Toha goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure it happens, in exchange for a candle to make a wish of her own.
Caught between two irreconcilable worlds, she slowly begins to understand the class divide that will define her life.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
Tribeca Film Festival 2025: Best International Narrative Feature; Best International Script; Nora Ephron Award (distinguished female filmmaker)
El Gouna Film Festival 2025: Cinema for Humanity Audience Award
Heartland International Film Festival 2025: Grand Prize Winner
São Paulo International Film Festival (49ª Mostra) 2025: Best Performance
Madrid Films by Women 2025: Best International Film
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2026: Best International First Feature
Variety: listed Sarah Goher in "Top 10 Directors to Watch in 2026" (December 2025)
RT: 91 minutes
Director: SARAH GOHER
THE STORIES dir. AB SHAWKY
Egypt, summer 1967. As war looms, Ahmed — a young man from a humble Cairo family — receives a letter from Austria. Liz has replied to his search for a pen pal. From that moment, their long-distance friendship becomes the thread that pulls Ahmed toward an unlikely dream: becoming a concert pianist. Together they live through war, family upheaval, and the tectonic shifts that rocked Egypt from Nasser to the 1980s. The Stories is a chronicle of ordinary people navigating history they never asked for.
Source: Press kit
RT: 101 mins.
Director: ABU BAKR SHAWKY
BOUCHRA dirs MERIEM BENNANI and ORIAN BARKI
Bouchra is a 35-year-old Moroccan filmmaker living in New York, paralyzed by the blank page. A phone call with her mother in Casablanca shakes loose a flood of memories — and a creative breakthrough. What follows is a journey through family bonds, daughterhood, and the thrill of new love, told entirely through 3D-animated anthropomorphic animals against live-action backgrounds.
Source: Press kit
RT: 82 mins.
Directors: ORIAN BARKI & MERIEM BENNANI
HIJRA dir. SHAHAD AMEEN - Q&A WITH PRODUCER
Saudi Arabia, 2001. Twelve-year-old Janna is traveling with her strict grandmother Sitti and rebellious older sister Sarah from the south of the country to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. When Sarah suddenly vanishes without a trace, Janna and Sitti are forced to continue northward across the Kingdom in a desperate search — crossing ancient pilgrimage routes, meeting strangers, and discovering far more than they bargained for.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
82nd Venice Film Festival: Official Selection, Venezia Spotlight; Best Asian Film Award
Carthage Film Festival (JCC): Best Cinematography Award; Best Actor Award
Red Sea International Film Festival: Jury Award; Audience Award — Best Saudi Film
98th Academy Awards: Saudi Arabia's official entry for Best International Feature Film
RT: 105 mins.
Director: SHAHAD AMEEN
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB dir. KAOUTHER BEN HANIA
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.
The voices on the phone are real.
Source: Palestine Red Crescent Society
Awards:
82nd Venice Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize; nominated for Golden Lion
98th Academy Awards:Tunisian entry for Best International Feature Film
73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival: Perlak section — audience score 9.52/10
RT: 89 mins.
Director: KAOUTHER BEN HANIA
OPENING NIGHT: A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD - Q&A dir. CYRIL ARIS
A sweeping love story spanning three decades. In Lebanon — a country cycling between prosperity and devastation — Nino and Yasmina are drawn together by a magnetic bond. As wars, collapse, and the August 4th explosion reshape the world around them, they face an impossible question: can you build a family and chart a path to happiness in a country that may never let you?
Awards:
. People's Choice Award, Giornate degli Autori (Venice) 2025
· Best Screenplay, Red Sea International Film Festival
· Best Picture, Asian World Fil.m Festival
· Jury Award + Best Acting Feature Film, Hollywood Arab Film Festival 2026
· Aurora Award, Tromsø International Film Festival
· Official Selection: Palm Springs IFF 2026
· San Francisco IFF 2026 · Mostra Internacional de Cinema São Paulo
· Official Selection of Lebanon, 98th Academy Awards®
RT: 109 mins.
Director: CYRIL ARIS
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB dir. KAOUTHER BEN HANIA
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.
The voices on the phone are real.
Source: Palestine Red Crescent Society
Awards:
82nd Venice Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize; nominated for Golden Lion
98th Academy Awards:Tunisian entry for Best International Feature Film
73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival: Perlak section — audience score 9.52/10
RT: 89 mins.
Director: KAOUTHER BEN HANIA
CLOSING NIGHT: A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD - Q&A dir. CYRIL ARIS
A sweeping love story spanning three decades. In Lebanon — a country cycling between prosperity and devastation — Nino and Yasmina are drawn together by a magnetic bond. As wars, collapse, and the August 4th explosion reshape the world around them, they face an impossible question: can you build a family and chart a path to happiness in a country that may never let you?
Awards:
. People's Choice Award, Giornate degli Autori (Venice) 2025
· Best Screenplay, Red Sea International Film Festival
· Best Picture, Asian World Fil.m Festival
· Jury Award + Best Acting Feature Film, Hollywood Arab Film Festival 2026
· Aurora Award, Tromsø International Film Festival
· Official Selection: Palm Springs IFF 2026
· San Francisco IFF 2026 · Mostra Internacional de Cinema São Paulo
· Official Selection of Lebanon, 98th Academy Awards®
RT: 109 mins.
Director: CYRIL ARIS
CALLE MÁLAGA dir. MARYAM TOUZANI
María Ángeles is a 79-year-old Spanish woman who has lived her entire life in Tangier. She has her routines, her neighborhood, her friends — and no intention of going anywhere.
When her daughter arrives from Madrid to sell the apartment, determined to uproot her, María Ángeles fights back with everything she has. And in the process, unexpectedly rediscovers love and sensuality.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
82nd Venice Film Festival: Audience Award, Spotlight section
Toronto International Film Festival 2025: Official Selection
Morocco's official entry for the 98th Academy Awards, Best International Feature Film
RT: 116 mins.
Director: MARYAM TOUZANI
HIJRA dir. SHAHAD AMEEN - Q&A WITH PRODUCER
Saudi Arabia, 2001. Twelve-year-old Janna is traveling with her strict grandmother Sitti and rebellious older sister Sarah from the south of the country to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. When Sarah suddenly vanishes without a trace, Janna and Sitti are forced to continue northward across the Kingdom in a desperate search — crossing ancient pilgrimage routes, meeting strangers, and discovering far more than they bargained for.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
82nd Venice Film Festival: Official Selection, Venezia Spotlight; Best Asian Film Award
Carthage Film Festival (JCC): Best Cinematography Award; Best Actor Award
Red Sea International Film Festival: Jury Award; Audience Award — Best Saudi Film
98th Academy Awards: Saudi Arabia's official entry for Best International Feature Film
RT: 105 mins.
Director: SHAHAD AMEEN
BOUCHRA dirs MERIEM BENNANI and ORIAN BARKI
Bouchra is a 35-year-old Moroccan filmmaker living in New York, paralyzed by the blank page. A phone call with her mother in Casablanca shakes loose a flood of memories — and a creative breakthrough. What follows is a journey through family bonds, daughterhood, and the thrill of new love, told entirely through 3D-animated anthropomorphic animals against live-action backgrounds.
Source: Press kit
RT: 82 mins.
Directors: ORIAN BARKI & MERIEM BENNANI
HAPPY BIRTHDAY dir. SARAH GOHER
Toha is an eight-year-old child maid working for a wealthy Cairo family.
When her best friend Nelly — the employer's daughter — is about to have a birthday party, Toha goes to extraordinary lengths to make sure it happens, in exchange for a candle to make a wish of her own.
Caught between two irreconcilable worlds, she slowly begins to understand the class divide that will define her life.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
Tribeca Film Festival 2025: Best International Narrative Feature; Best International Script; Nora Ephron Award (distinguished female filmmaker)
El Gouna Film Festival 2025: Cinema for Humanity Audience Award
Heartland International Film Festival 2025: Grand Prize Winner
São Paulo International Film Festival (49ª Mostra) 2025: Best Performance
Madrid Films by Women 2025: Best International Film
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2026: Best International First Feature
Variety: listed Sarah Goher in "Top 10 Directors to Watch in 2026" (December 2025)
RT: 91 minutes
Director: SARAH GOHER
DO YOU LOVE ME
A love letter to Beirut — playful, personal, and built entirely from archival footage. Drawing on 70 years of Lebanese film, television, home videos, and photography, Do You Love Me reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers, and artists, it explores the Lebanese collective psyche: its joy and intimacy, its destruction and loss, its enduring creative spirit.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
Hamburg Film Festival 2025: Political Film Award of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
Doclisboa 2025: Honorable Mention — "a poetic film in a form we have never seen before"
Cinemed 2025: Special Mention
DocPoint Helsinki Documentary Film Festival 2026: Best Film in International Competition
Festival circuit: Venice (Giornate degli Autori, world premiere) · IDFA · SXSW · CPH:DOX · Marrakech · Cairo · Göteborg · New Directors/New Films
RT: 75 mins.
Director: LANA DAHER
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH dir. ANAS BA-TAHAF
Hayat is a superstitious artist convinced she will die the night she turns 30 — just as her mother and grandmother did before her. Youssef is an introverted heart surgeon with bradycardia, a condition that slows his heartbeat to a dangerous crawl.
The only thing that raises his pulse is holding a scalpel. He has the urge to take a life. Hayat wants to die on her own terms. Fate brings them together — and then love gets in the way.
Source: Press kit
RT: 118 mins.
Director: ANAS BA-TAHAF
COTTON QUEEN dir. SUZANNAH MIRGHANI
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, teenage Nafisa is raised on heroic tales of resistance against British colonizers, passed down by her grandmother Al-Sit, the village matriarch. When a young businessman arrives with a new development plan and genetically engineered cotton, Nafisa becomes the center of a power struggle over the village's future. Awakening to her own strength, she sets out to save the cotton fields — and herself.
Awards/Festivals: World Premiere, Venice International Film Critics' Week 2025 · Golden Alexander (top prize), Thessaloniki International Film Festival · Prix ArteKino International (development award, Cannes 2022)
RT: 93 mins.
Director: SUZANNAH MIRGHANI
THE STORIES dir. AB SHAWKY - ZOOM Q&A
Egypt, summer 1967. As war looms, Ahmed — a young man from a humble Cairo family — receives a letter from Austria. Liz has replied to his search for a pen pal. From that moment, their long-distance friendship becomes the thread that pulls Ahmed toward an unlikely dream: becoming a concert pianist. Together they live through war, family upheaval, and the tectonic shifts that rocked Egypt from Nasser to the 1980s. The Stories is a chronicle of ordinary people navigating history they never asked for.
Source: Press kit
RT: 101 mins.
Director: ABU BAKR SHAWKY
THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE dir. HASAN HADI
Iraq, 1990s. Nine-year-old Lamia has been chosen by her school to bake a cake for the President's birthday. In a country ground down by sanctions and fear, even eggs, flour, and sugar are nearly impossible to find. Accompanied by her grandmother, her loyal friend Saeed, and her pet rooster Hindi, Lamia sets off on a determined journey through the city to track down the ingredients — navigating vendors, checkpoints, and the daily contradictions of life under Saddam.
Source: Press kit
Awards:
Cannes Film Festival 2025: Caméra d'Or (best debut feature); Quinzaine des Cinéastes Audience Award
Iraq's official entry for the 98th Academy Awards, Best International Feature Film
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
RT: 105 mins.
Director: HASAN HADI
CLOSING NIGHT: EL SETT dir. MARWAN HAMED
From a small Nile Delta village where as a girl she sang disguised as a boy, to her final concert as a woman battling illness — El Sett traces seven decades in the life of Umm Kulthum (1904–1975), the Egyptian singer who became the Voice of the Arab World.
Starring Mona Zaki in a career-defining performance, the film follows her journey from provincial obscurity to Paris, Cairo concert halls, and global legend — a woman whose voice Bob Dylan, Maria Callas, and Robert Plant all claimed as an influence.
Source: Press kit
Date:(insert screening date)
RT: 155 mins.
Director: MARWAN HAMED
SNOW WHITE dir. TAGHRID ABOUELHASSAN
Snow White is a 2024 Egyptian drama that reimagines the classic fairy tale through a contemporary lens. The story follows Iman, a young Egyptian woman of short stature (119 cm), who navigates societal prejudices and familial expectations in her quest for love and acceptance. Facing challenges in arranged marriage prospects due to her height, Iman turns to online dating, concealing her appearance while showcasing her vibrant personality. The film delves into themes of disability, societal norms, and the pursuit of happiness.
AICHA dir. MEHDI BARSAOUI
Aïcha follows Aya, a 29-year-old woman feeling trapped in her life in southern Tunisia. After surviving a minivan crash that kills all other passengers, Aya seizes the opportunity to escape her past by moving to Tunis and assuming a new identity as Amira. However, her fresh start is threatened when she becomes the main witness to a police blunder.
CO-EXISTENCE MY ASS dir. AMBER FARES
Coexistence, My Ass! is a 2025 American-French documentary film directed by Amber Fares. The film follows Israeli comedian and activist Noam Shuster-Eliassi as she develops and performs her one-woman show addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through satire. Raised in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a cooperative village founded by Jews and Palestinians, Shuster-Eliassi's unique background informs her comedic approach to peace activism. The documentary captures her journey from working as a UN diplomat to embracing comedy as a tool for social change, highlighting the challenges she faces in a region marked by deep-seated tensions.
TAKE MY BREATH dir. NADA MEZNI
When Shams’ intersex identity is exposed, the young seamstress’ tranquil life unravels. Engaged in a steamy love triangle and targeted by an obsessive attacker, they escape to the capital city. Taking refuge with their lover’s mystic cousin, they grapple with their complex sense of self. This evocative tale explores the clash between desire and identity.
ALGIERS dir. CHAKIB TALEB-BENDIAB
No Other Land is a 2024 documentary film co-directed by Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, along with Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. The film provides an unflinching account of the mass expulsion of the Palestinian community in Masafer Yatta, located in the southern West Bank. Over five years, the filmmakers documented the Israeli military's demolition of homes, schools, and infrastructure, aiming to turn the area into a military training zone.
THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US dir. LAILA ABBAS
Thank You for Banking with Us! is Abbas's debut feature film, a dramedy that premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2024 . The film centers on two sisters, Noura and Maryam, who, following their father's death, attempt to claim their rightful inheritance before their estranged brother, entitled to a larger share under Islamic inheritance laws, becomes aware. Set in Ramallah, the film uses humor and satire to explore themes of gender inequality and societal expectations within Palestinian culture .
KHARTOUM dirs. RAWIA ALHAG/IBRAHIM SNOOPY AHMAD/TIMEEA MOHAMED AHMED/PHILIP COX
Forced to leave Sudan for East Africa following the outbreak of war, five citizens of Khartoum—a civil servant, a tea lady, a resistance committee volunteer, and two young bottle collectors—reenact their stories of survival and freedom through dreams, revolution, and civil war. In 2022, Sudanese filmmakers Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, and Timeea Ahmed joined with British director Phil Cox to chronicle the lives of their five participants. After a military coup, a war broke out that displaced over 10 million people, including the filmmakers and their subjects. Khartoum boldly demonstrates determination and invention borne out of necessity as the film team adapts their project to their new reality. Blending footage shot before their escape with imaginative green-screen sequences, the filmmakers create a safe space for their participants to share and process their experiences of conflict and exile—not without moments of hope and joy. The result is a singular, emotional, and personal journey into a devastating conflict that has gone underreported in the West.
IL SIGNORE dir. AYMEN KHOJA
Il Signore (2024) is a Saudi Arabian comedy directed by Aymen Khoja. The film follows Salem, a Saudi engineer who, after being overlooked for promotions in favor of foreign experts, decides to impersonate an Italian consultant named "Paolo" to secure a high-ranking position in a major company. His deception leads to unexpected success, but also entangles him with a dangerous gang, forcing Salem to confront the consequences of his actions and question his true identity. The film explores themes of identity, cultural perceptions, and the challenges faced by local professionals in a globalized workforce.
DEATH WITHOUT MERCY dir. WAAD AL- KATEAB
DEATH WITHOUT MERCY / WAAD AL-KATEAB
On February 6, 2023 at 4:17 am local time, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and north eastern Syria. In a matter of minutes large parts of the southern Turkish cities of Antakya, Gaziantep, and Hatay were in ruins, and tens of thousands lay dead under the rubble.
In the aftermath of the earthquake there was no universal effort to save the injured and the dying under the rubble. Civilians were forced to use their hands and shovels to dig up loved ones and strangers, while the world looked the other way. Faulty constructions, criminal permissions, plus the lack of rescue efforts, caused the unnecessary death of 50,000, many of which could have been saved.
The film is built on the experiences of two Syrian families, following them over the course of 10 days after the disaster, as they piece together the tragedy and uncover revelations about the corruption, lies and government incompetence that exacerbated the disaster and its response.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS dir. SCANDAR COPTI
While celebrating Purim at her university in Jerusalem, Fifi, a young Palestinian woman is hospitalized following a car accident. Though her injuries are minor, she fears her newfound freedom at school will now come under the scrutiny of her conservative parents. Meanwhile, back in Haifa, Fifi’s older brother Rami panics as he faces his own personal crisis - Shirley, his Jewish girlfriend, reveals she is pregnant and plans to carry the baby to term. Behind closed doors, the family's deep financial troubles come into focus while Hanan, Fifi and Rami's mother, plans her eldest daughter's wedding.
VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE dir. MO HARAWE
The Village Next to Paradise (2024) is the debut feature film by Somali-Austrian director Mo Harawe. Set in a windy Somali village, the story follows Mamargade, a single father striving to provide a better future for his son, Cigaal. Their lives take a turn with the arrival of Mamargade's sister, Araweelo, who returns home seeking a fresh start after her divorce. Together, the newly formed family navigates personal aspirations amidst the complexities of their environment, marked by conflict and the omnipresence of foreign drones. The film delves into themes of love, resilience, and the pursuit of a better life, offering a poignant portrayal of familial bonds in challenging circumstances.
TO A LAND UNKNOWN dir. MAHDI FLEIFEL
Chatila and Reda are saving to pay for fake passports to get out of Athens. But when Reda loses their hard-earned cash to his dangerous drug addiction, Chatila hatches an extreme plan, which involves them posing as smugglers and taking hostages in an effort to get him and his best friend out of their hopeless environment before it is too late.
With Muhammad Farrag, Nelly Karim, Bayoumi Fouad
Based on an incredible true story, Voy! Voy! Voy! relates the hilarious tale of Hassan, an Egyptian man who dreams of escaping poverty in Cairo, and fakes a visual impairment in order to join a team bound for the Blind Football World Cup in Poland.
Join us for a Q&A with director Omar Hilal following the screening.
Date: THURSDAY JULY 18, 2024
RT: 100 mins.
Director: OMAR HILAL