Jerusalem Arab Film Festival Marks Sixth Year with Largest Program to Date: “Our Story Lives On”

“As long as there are voices willing to speak, there will always be stories waiting to be heard.”1

The Jerusalem Arab Film Festival (JAFF) was held for the sixth consecutive year this summer, bringing 36 Arab films from 16 countries to Jerusalem with the theme “Life and Continuity,” building on the festival’s theme for this year, “Our Story Lives On.”

With open arms the National Palestinian Theatre—El-Hakawati hosted the opening ceremony on July 28, 2026, continuing its collaboration with the festival. In 1950, El-Hakawati’s building was originally inaugurated as Cinema al-Quds, the first cinema in Jerusalem, and in 2026, it paid homage to its history by showing Arab cinema.2 The festival continued through August 2, 2026, with diverse venues throughout Jerusalem and also in other cities.

People of all ages (and notably children) attended the ceremony, filling El-Hakawati Theatre’s courtyard with conversation and activity. Nevin Shaheen, founder and director of JAFF, stressed that holding the festival “is not a luxury, rather a necessity.”3

In recent years, the cultural field in Jerusalem has grappled with Israeli restrictions and shutdowns of events and institutions (see Imad Muna: “When Cultural Activity Disappears, the Pulse of Daily Life Recedes and the Space for Expression Narrows”). JAFF promotes the power of cinema to bring people and stories together and resists Israeli prohibitions on Palestinians’ celebrating life through art. For a week, Palestinian Jerusalemites and other film enthusiasts gathered to enjoy the products of creative imaginations of Arab and Palestinian art visionaries.

The participating films were shown in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Haifa, and Nazareth, “providing a space for a breath, an encounter, dialogue, and hope”4 around Palestine. The festival took place with deliberate intention to create this atmosphere, a tacit and not an outlier event. Participating films were featured in Arab and international festivals before landing in JAFF, reaffirming Jerusalem’s presence on the global radar for culture, an indisputable fact about the cosmopolitan city. In her opening speech, Nevin reassured the audience that we deserve to have these films with us in Jerusalem, as the city is no less important than any other within the film world.

Each year, the festival’s role in the cultural scene grows and attracts larger audiences, featuring a multitude of artistic expression. This year’s festival included music and dance: The voice of popular Palestinian singer and music teacher Aya Khalaf, accompanied by organ player Hasan al-Sheikh, opened the festival on a good note. This was followed by a moving performance by the Jerusalemite professional dance group Douban, whose impressive young members performed “Roots That Never Die.”

The Opening Film at the festival this year was the long drama Love, Imagined, directed by Sarah Rozik from Egypt. This film is about love and grief and offered a popular romantic film meant to engage younger crowds.

The other drama features shown at the festival were a mix of serious and curious films, including the highly praised Cotton Queen, a coming-of-age story depicting Sudanese womanhood, written and directed by Qatar-based filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani, depicting the economic shifts in a quiet farming village in Sudan; Dead Dog, directed by Sarah Francis, about marital estrangement and relationships, set in Lebanon; Exile, directed by Mehdi Hmili, a story about steelworkers in Tunisia, which won the Jury Award for Best Feature Film; Calle Málaga, directed by Maryam Touzani, about a Spaniard woman living alone in Tangier, Morocco; Where the Wind Comes From, a comedy road trip film directed by Amel Guellaty, capturing scenes of Djerba, southern Tunisia, and exploring the effects of past traumas; and Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream, directed by Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji, a story about orphans trying to survive in war-devastated Iraq. The latter film won the Best Feature Film Award and was screened on the Closing Night of the festival. Using both fantasy and action, the heart-wrenching film conveyed the dreadful impact of war on children.

In addition to the dramas, the festival screened five documentary films, starting with Life after Siham from Egypt, about the loss of director Namir Abdel Messeeh’s mother. This film won JAFF’s award for Best Documentary Film. The other films included Khartoum (Sudan)—directed by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhaj, Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmed, and Timeea M. Ahmed—about five characters with diverse backgrounds grappling with the harsh realities of war and displacement, which won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Film; Derriere le Soleil (Tunisia), directed by Dhia Jerbi, about a young man in exile in France; House of Hope (Palestine), directed by Marjolein Busstra, about a couple running a primary school in al-‘Izariyya; and Until We Rest (Lebanon), directed by Ghina Abboud, about a Syrian refugee living through displacement in Lebanon.

There were also 20 short films screened throughout the festival, not only at El-Hakawati but also at the French Institute of Jerusalem and the Old City Hub, in addition to cultural spaces in other cities, such as Haifa, Bethlehem, and Nazareth.

One of the greatest highlights of the festival was the awards (cash prizes up to $2,000 to the directors), which were made possible thanks to the international sponsors of the festival and an impressive jury from the Arab world. The Best Short Film Award went to Aicha, directed by Sanaa El-Alaoui from Morocco, exploring the relationship between a 17-year-old girl and her emotionally distant mother. The Jury Award for Short Film went to Karim Rahbani’s One Last Time, about a widower in Lebanon who learns of another friend passing away and coincidentally meets a beautiful woman, piquing his interest in dating again. The film has a humorous plot that demonstrates how the will to live and experience joy knows no age.

Upon announcing the award on closing night, organizers shared videos of the winning Arab directors, such as Karim, who mentioned that this is the 17th award for the film; “but in all honesty, this is the one that meant the most to me because it’s coming from the Jerusalem Arab Film Festival.”5 Karim’s message was powerful as someone in Lebanon, since he could not attend the festival in person, much like the other directors from Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt who also won awards for their films. Like Karim, they all mentioned how they treasured receiving an award from Jerusalem: a treasure from a place they are so connected to but cannot access physically.

One film received particularly high attention due to the active presence and involvement of its director Yousef Salhi at JAFF: the Palestinian short film set in Jerusalem I Know You Can Hear Me.

The film was highlighted and JAFF organized a discussion around it that included the main character Cosette—played by the celebrated Palestinian singer, actor, and producer Amal Murkus from Kufr Yasif in the Galilee. The film also featured Palestinian Jerusalemite actor Kamel El Basha, along with other celebrated personalities known for their institutional and educational work outside cinema, namely, Huda Imam and Carmen Lama-Sahhar. George Khleifi, Adeeb Safadi, Emile Saba, and Fidaa Zidan were also in the film.

The film is set in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, with hints of European influence and styles of decor found in the architecture of the location. With humor and gossipy neighbors, the plot revolves around the weight of Salim’s past as someone returning home after 20 years in prison who is haunted by nightmares and isolation upon his release. His love interest, Cosette, is mortified by what those years in prison have done to him, and she tries to understand and rekindle the relationship torn apart by those lost years.

During the festival, Yousef mentioned the importance of space in Jerusalem.6 Through such events, he noted, Palestinians get the chance to see their own film actors on-screen and become acquainted with their work. This bridging is vital, he added, as it gives recognition to filmmakers on the ground; acknowledgment and connection of local communities help them feel seen. Yousef’s family members, including his mother, attended the screening, and it was quite moving for him as an aspiring filmmaker to have his family, friends, and acquaintances watch the film collectively and have an open discussion about it in a professional and distinguished space. In addition to learning about his work, audience members also got to know impressive talents such as Amal, who was in attendance closing night and sang a Fairuz song in front of an enchanted audience.

Another great highlight of JAFF, as expressed by the festival’s director Nevin,7 was the masterclass in acting, which was the first of its kind to be held in East Jerusalem. Titled “Acting for a Reason,” the three-day workshop took participants (with intermediate and advanced experience) on an intensive journey though the origins of acting and performance art.

What stood out about this workshop is that Ashraf Barhom—a globally renowned Palestinian actor—guided the participants on how to handle challenges in the field, offered mentorship on managing their careers and excelling at auditions, and helped them rediscover the act of reading scenarios and stepping into roles from a creative, professional lens.

The participants who attended the workshop were appreciative of receiving direct instruction from Ashraf, who was equally moved to be mentoring in Jerusalem; a space he described as “full of courage, curiosity, and unforgettable scenes.”8

It is worth noting that Ashraf established a name for himself in the 2005 Palestinian film al-Janna al-Laan (Paradise Now), which was the first Palestinian film to ever receive an Academy Award nomination in 2006. His skills and abilities received global recognition, including in Hollywood, where he acted in The Kingdom (2007), Agora (2009), and the remake of Clash of the Titans (2010).

The festival went beyond viewing cinema, as it included talks, workshops, and guided tours to foster spaces of interaction and exchange of ideas.9 The first of these events was a talk by journalist and cinema critic Samah Bsoul, titled “Cinema and Archive: Reading Jerusalem’s Visual History,” which explored the relationship between cinema and archives through historical images and documents; and tracked the role of cinema in pre-1948 Palestine in the city, consumption of cinema by the community, and visual memories.

Visual memory was explored again with Ghadeer Najjar, a cultural heritage researcher, but this time through women’s textiles and their day-to-day lives within which lies a living archive of identity and culture. The talk, titled “Women, Textile, and Cinema: Visual Memory of Palestinian Women,” highlighted the connection between cinema and personal memory and visual heritage, inviting us to reinterpret place and history from a woman’s perspective.

The festival hosted these talks at the Palestine National Heritage Museum, promoting collaborative relationships among Palestinian institutions in the city and helping to activate their spaces year-round. JAFF commits to creating an ecosystem for cinema enthusiasts by not only showing films but also hosting workshops to enhance filmmaking skills for emerging artists, connecting them with filmmakers and industry professionals around the Arab world, and providing opportunities to share their work.

The program also included two guided tours to bolster Jerusalemites’ and attendees’ relationship with the city: the annual tour of the Way of the Cross in the Old City of Jerusalem and an inspiring tour of the Palestine Heritage Museum established in 1962 by the late Hind al-Husseini.