We are proud to announce that Youssef Chahine’s Cairo Station has topped the list of The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time!

Based on the votes of hundreds of professional critics, academics, curators, and select filmmakers, The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time list (AFMI100) presents a modern canon of the best fictional, feature-length films from the Arab world, and is hosted on a new website by AFMI, Cinemayaat.com.

We have been unveiling the results of the votes since November 18th, and on Thursday December 18th we announced the top 10 films, each accompanied by an original essay written by a talented Arab critic or academic.

The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time at a glance:

  • 100 films, 20 by women directors
  • Most represented countries: Egypt (40 films), Palestine (15 films), Tunisia (13 films)
  • Most prominent decades: 2010s (22 films), 1980s (15 films), 2020s (14 films)
  • Directors with the highest number of films: 
    • Youssef Chahine (7)
    • Elia Suleiman (4, all his narrative features)
    • Annemarie Jacir (3, all her narrative features before Palestine 36, which wasn’t out at time of voting)
    • Nadine Labaki (3, all her narrative features)
    • Mohamed Khan (3)
    • Salah Abu Seif (3)

Cairo Station is hailed as The Greatest Arab Film of All Time.

The 1958 masterpiece by Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine was met with outrage when it was released. Wael Khairy writes about Cairo Station for Cinemayaat: “Cairo Station marked a seismic shift for Egyptian cinema. Chahine did not merely challenge convention, he dismantled it entirely. At the time, the Egyptian film industry was largely shaped by melodrama and escapism. But Chahine delivered something raw, psychological, and unflinchingly political. What emerged was a film that unnerved a nation, was banned for two decades, and later came to be regarded as the defining masterpiece of Egyptian cinema.”

We partnered with The Criterion Collection and The Roxie Theater in San Francisco to screen a rare 4K restoration of Cairo Station by Janus Films/The Criterion Collection during the 2025 Arab Film Festival. The screening sold out and each attendee received a Blue Ray Special Edition Disc, courtesy of The Criterion Collection.

“The top 10 Greatest Arab Films of All Time reflect the diversity of experience, narrative styles, genres, and experiences of Arab filmmakers. Watching these movies and reading the accompanying essays brings viewers face to face with some of the most salient issues of our time. From intimate moments to revolutionary acts, from realistic depictions of life under oppression to humour as a radical act of rebellion, each filmmaker captures something universal and unique about their time and beyond.” – Eman Ibrahim, Cinemayaat Magazine, Editor-in-Chief

The 10 Greatest Arab Films of All Time and accompanying essays:

1. Cairo Station (1958), directed by Youssef Chahine
Cairo Station: The Greatest Arab Film of All Time, written by Wael Khairy

2. The Night of Counting the Years (1969), directed by Shadi Abdel Salam
The Night of Counting the Years: A Unique Work in and on History written by Viola Shafik

3. West Beirut (1998), directed by Ziad Doueiri
West Beirut: The Refusal to Surrender to Despair written by Chafic Tabbara

4. The Silences of the Palace (1994), directed by Moufida Tlatli
The Silences of the Palace: The Unraveling of Girlhood in a World of Uninnocence written by Yasmine Zohdi

5*. Divine Intervention (2002), directed by Elia Suleiman
Divine Intervention: A Mirror for the Grand Human Condition written by Joseph Fahim

5*. The Land (1970), directed by Youssef Chahine
The Land: A Poignant Representation of Egypt’s Political History written by Rowan El Shimi

7. The Time That Remains (2009), directed by Elia Suleiman
The Time That Remains: Chronicle of a Present-Absentee written by Alexa Firat

8. The Dupes (1972), directed by Tawfiq Saleh
The Dupes: The First Film of the Palestinian Revolution written by Saleem Albeik

9. Kit Kat (1991), directed by  Daoud Abdel Sayed
Kit Kat: The Blind Man Who Claims to See All written by Hazem Fahmy

10. Caramel (2007), directed by Nadine Labaki
Caramel: A Transformative Moment for Lebanese Cinema written by Marie-Louise Elia

*The total number of films is 100. Films ranked with the same number indicate a tie in the results.

The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time is a resource for all film lovers to discover the very best classic and contemporary films the region has to offer. 

Find the complete list of The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time on Cinemayaat.com and learn about each film!