Arab Films at the 2026 Venice Film Festival
Another year, another Fall film festival season, another round-up of Arab cinema from the 2026 Venice International Film Festival. Running from September 2nd to the 12th, a handful of films from around the Arab world will premiering for the first time at this prestigious event. Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (The Voice of Hind Rajab, Four Daughters) will be serving on the Main Competition jury for the Golden Lion. Several Arab films are playing in the Official Selection, as well as parallel independent sections — let’s dive right in and see what they are:
All film descriptions and stills are from the La Biennale di Venezia official website.
In Competition
Woman Unknown (Kvinde Ukendt) by May el-Toukhy
Denmark, Sweden, Latvia – Narrative Feature
Marie, a young nanny and housemaid, is about to marry the wealthy older widower, Christian, for whom she is working. But Marie guards a shameful secret. During World War II, she was in an intimate relationship with a German soldier. Now Marie’s past threatens to catch up with her, and she is forced to do everything in her power to preserve her new status as lady of the house in post-war anarchy.
Although the film does not center an Arab narrative, director May El-Touhky is of Egyptian descent. This is her first film to premiere at Venice.
Official Selection: Out of Competition
No paradise if you are killed by a woman by Halkawt Mustafa
Norway, Iraqi Kurdistan – Narrative Feature
Vyan, a Kurdish female sniper, has survived war by shutting down her emotions. When she learns her younger sister, believed lost during ISIS’ 2014 assault, may still be alive in Mosul, she returns to a city shaped by death and destruction. Her search becomes both a rescue mission and a confrontation with the trauma she has spent years trying to silence.
Citizen Osama (Al mowaten Osama) by Ahmed Hassouna
Palestine, France – Documentary Feature
In besieged northern Gaza, Osama, a former artistic photographer turned war documentarian, struggles to protect his wife and newborn while capturing devastation around him. Amid hunger, loss, and trauma, he persists, driven by duty and hope, offering a raw, intimate portrait of resilience and humanity in wartime.
Hassouna is a Palestinian documentarian and former journalist. Citizen Osama is a part of the From Ground Zero film project, which played at our Arab Film Festival in 2024.
Horizons Short Film Competition
Horizons, or Orizzonti, is a parallel section of the Venice Film Festival’s official selection; one Arab film is playing in the short film competition.
A Few Moments of Happiness (Quelques instants de bonheur) by Shaden Safieddine Tazi
France, United Kingdom – Narrative Short
After fleeing Beirut for Paris, a young filmmaker finds herself in limbo, watching Lebanon fall under Israeli bombardment from the far side of a screen. In a state of paralysis, barely able to get out of bed, she calls her father everyday and begins recording her digital life.
Tazi is Lebanese-Moroccan filmmaker based in Paris; this is her first short film to play at Venice.
Venice Spotlight
Venice Spotlight is a section designed to showcase films with strong cultural and social impact, distinguished by innovation and creative originality. Two films from Arab directors are premiering in the category.
Conversation With The Sea (Hiwar ma’ albahr) by Muayad Alayan
Palestine, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Qatar – Narrative Feature
In Jerusalem, Kamal, a 60-year-old Palestinian man, is ordered by an Israeli court to pay a large social security debt allegedly owed by his son Wael. But Wael drowned in the Red Sea decades ago. When no official record of his death can be found, Kamal follows the only remaining lead to uncover what happened to his son.
Alayan is a Palestinian filmmaker, and AFF Alum: two of his films, Love, Theft and Other Entanglements (read this interview) and The Reports on Sarah and Saleem played at AFF2016 and AFF2018, respectively.
Furies by Rami Kodeih
Lebanon, Brazil – Narrative Feature
During Lebanon’s real-life corruption-fueled economic collapse, all the banks freeze accounts overnight, trapping millions of people’s life savings. Maro, a determined single mother, tries to access her own money to pay for her wild-hearted younger sister Dalia’s life-saving surgery. When the bank refuses, the sisters scheme an elaborate all-night heist to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. As they recruit an ex-militia member and truck driver into their plan, it triggers a chain of events that quickly spirals out of control in a city already on the brink.
Independent Sections: International Critics’ Week
Critic’s Week is a parallel section that aims to discover new talents, primarily showcasing debut features. All film descriptions and stills are taken from the Settimana Internazionale della Critica official website.
The H@llow Man by Kamel Laaridhi
Tunisia – Narrative Feature
2059, Tunisia. A biochip regulates memory and suppresses emotion. Hypnotherapy is forbidden, but Taha secretly consults a hypnotherapist. He is a pathos-smith: through poetry, he forges for others the emotions they can no longer feel. While under hypnosis, Taha crosses a forest and reaches a house without electricity and infested with bedbugs, surveilled by a taciturn, curious neighbour. Inside, a man and two women are preparing a suicide attack. The woman chosen to carry the bomb is pregnant: their leader has ruled that a fetus under three months has no soul. In the haze of hallucinogenic pills, Taha understands: the fetus is himself. Police storm the house; his mother sets herself alight.
Independent Sections: Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori)
Venice Days is an Independent Section with the goal of highlighting smaller films, and boosting the profile of newer auteurs. Lebanese filmmaker Hania Mroué is on the jury for this section. All film descriptions and stills are taken from the Giornate degli Autori official website.
AL BARANEYA by Ashgan El-Hamus
Netherlands, Egypt, Belgium, Saudi Arabia – Narrative Feature
Pregnant Amal lives together with her family in Al Baraneya, a village outside Cairo, surrounded by jasmine fields. Their chaotic yet loving way of life is upset when a landowner offers to buy their land. The pressure to sell divides the family and doubts begin to grow. When Amal’s cousin Rania visits from Cairo, she captivates Amal and her younger sisters with her modern lifestyle: jeans, TikTok videos, and lively city stories. Amal starts to question the life that seems to have been laid out for her and dreams of moving to Cairo. Now that the potential sale of the land offers the prospect of a future in the city, the family’s unshakable faith in their own life in the village starts to waver.
Final Cut
Final Cut in Venice is a program that provides support to filmmakers from Africa and the Middle East in order to complete their work-in-progress feature films. Four Arab films at the Venice Film Festival are being highlighted this year:
Eldorado: The Taste of the South by Alaa Eddine Aljem – Morocco, France, Italy, Norway
Occupational Hazards by Bassel Ghandour – Jordan, Qatar, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Palestine
Plague by Youssef Chebbi – Tunisia, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia
A Quarter to Thursday by Sofia Djama – Algeria, France, Belgium
Congratulations to these filmmakers! We’ll keep an eye out for their complete films.
And are you excited to see these films? If so, keep an eye out for our 30th Arab Film Festival this November, just in case they appear in our programming 😉
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