The 79th Cannes Film Festival (12-23 May) features a wide, diverse Arab presence across competitions, industry platforms, talent programmes, juries, and documentary projects. For the second year in a row, Egypt’s most visible presence remains within the Marché du Film through the Egyptian Pavilion, which continues to expand its role as a meeting point for Arab and international film professionals.
Egypt’s presence at the Marché du Film goes beyond film selections, reflecting a growing effort to position the country as an active player within the global industry. Returning for a second year, the Egyptian Pavilion brings together the Cairo International Film Festival, the Egypt Film Commission and the El Gouna Film Festival in one of the clearest examples of institutional collaboration within the Egyptian film sector in recent years. Located once again on the Pantiero overlooking Cannes’ old port, the pavilion returns after winning the Marché du Film’s Best Pavilion Design Award in 2025, this time with broader industry participation from Egyptian companies including Film Clinic, Film Square, Focus Film Rentals and Red Star Films. Over ten days, it hosts panels, networking events, and round tables addressing co-production, international distribution, film criticism, restoration, and the circulation of cinematic heritage, while also focusing on Egypt’s role as a filming destination and supporting emerging Arab filmmakers navigating an increasingly competitive global industry.
Alongside the Egyptian Pavilion, the Arab Cinema Centre also returns with a multi-day industry programme (14-17 May), gathering filmmakers, producers, distributors, executives and talent representatives for discussions around leadership, innovation, commercial Arab productions and regional co-productions. Among the speakers participating this year are representatives of MBC STUDIOS, MAD Solutions, Front Row and Film Clinic, in addition to Egyptian actor and President of the Cairo International Film Festival Hussein Fahmi.
Marking its 10th round, the Arab Cinema Centre Critics Awards for Arab Films will announce its winners on 16 May at a ceremony at the Plage des Palmes. This year’s nominations reflect a particularly strong Palestinian presence, especially within the main competition categories. In Best Feature Film, Once Upon a Time in Gaza by Palestinian twin directors Tarzan and Arab Nasser competes alongside Palestine 36 by Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, All That’s Left of You by Palestinian-American director Cherien Dabis, Calle Málaga by Moroccan director Maryam Touzani, and Cotton Queen by Sudanese filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani. The Egyptian representation appears in the documentary section through 50 Meters by Egyptian filmmaker Yomna Khattab and Life After Siham by Egyptian-French director Namir Abdel-Messeeh. Actor Ahmed Malek received a Best Actor nomination for My Father’s Scent, while Egyptian cinematographer Mustafa Al- Kashef was nominated for Aisha Can’t Fly Away and Egyptian editor Ahmed Hafez for My Father’s Scent.
The programme also includes the organisation’s annual Personality of the Year and Game Changer awards. This year, the inaugural Game Changer of the Year Award will be presented to Vincenzo Bugno, head of the World Cinema Fund, in recognition of his support for Arab cinema internationally. Meanwhile, the Critics Lifetime Achievement Award will go to prominent Egyptian critic Tarek Al-Shennawy and Turkish critic Alin Taşçıyan for their longstanding contributions to film criticism and festival culture.
Arab artists are also present on the jury this year at Un Certain Regard, with French-Algerian actress Leïla Bekhti serving as president. Bekhti first gained international attention through A Prophet, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2009, and has since built a career with films by directors including Jacques Audiard and Radu Mihaileanu. Joining her on the jury is Lebanese composer and producer Khaled Mouzanar, known for his collaborations with Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki on films like Caramel, Where Do We Go Now?, and the Oscar-nominated Capharnaüm. Algerian critic Mohamed Allal, president of the Annaba Film Festival, also joins this year’s FIPRESCI jury.
Emerging Arab talent is present across the Cannes industry initiatives. Franco-Algerian producer and filmmaker Sélim Benzeghia was selected for the Co-Pro Social Club at Cannes Docs, a programme supporting documentary producers pursuing international co-productions. Benzeghia is co-founder of Koudéta Films and a National Geographic Explorer whose first feature as lead producer, Green Gold, was previously selected at the IDFA Forum, in 2024. Iraqi filmmaker Yousif Shamil Aljwadi and Saudi producer Tamim Mukhtar are, meanwhile, among the ten international participants selected for the 2026 Cannes Makers programme, which focuses on training emerging film professionals in international sales, distribution and marketing.
Among the recurring Arab names at Cannes this year is Egyptian cinematographer Mustafa Al-Kashef, who makes his fourth consecutive appearance at the festival with Ben’imana by Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, premiering in Un Certain Regard. Over the past few years, Al-Kashef has become closely associated with internationally recognised Arab and African independent productions screened at Cannes, beginning with Morad Mustafa’s I Promise You Paradise in the Critics’ Week in 2023, followed by the Somali feature The Village Next to Paradise in 2024, and Aisha Can’t Fly Away in 2025, which marked Egypt’s return to Un Certain Regard after nearly a decade. A graduate of both EICAR in Paris and Cairo’s Higher Institute of Cinema, Al- Kashef has steadily built a reputation for visually driven work across fiction and documentary, earning cinematography awards at, among others, the Cairo International Film Festival, Carthage and Diagonale.
French filmmaker Arthur Harari, who is of Egyptian origin through his grandfather, the Egyptian-born French actor Clément Harari, also joins this year’s official competition with his feature L’Inconnue (The Unknown). Harari is widely known for co-writing Anatomy of a Fall alongside Justine Triet, earning the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and César awards for Best Original Screenplay.
Within La Cinef, Tunisian director Youssef Handouse joins the selection with his short film Somewhere I Belong. Handouse, who also works as an editor and music composer, graduated in 2025 from the Institute of Multimedia Arts of Manouba with the project.
Arab cinema also maintains a notable presence at this year’s International Critics Week with four films, both short and long, in the official competition as well as special screenings. Leading the Arab participation in the feature competition is Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq with her debut fiction feature Al-Mahatta (The Station), a co-production between Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Qatar. Set inside a woman-only petrol station in war-torn Yemen, the film follows Layal as she reunites with her estranged sister in an attempt to save their younger brother from militia enlistment. Ishaq first gained international recognition with her Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated documentary short Karama Has No Walls, followed by The Mulberry House, which premiered at IDFA.
The short film selection includes Franco-Algerian filmmaker Sarra Ryma’s What Do the Maknines Dream Of, following two young Algerians preparing to cross the Mediterranean as they drift through a final day marked by uncertainty and goodbyes. Also selected is Nafron by Syrian filmmaker Daoud Alabdulaa, set in Damascus shortly after the fall of Bashar Al-Assad, where a middle-aged woman suffering from memory loss searches for fragments of her identity amid a fractured city.
Meanwhile, Lebanese filmmaker and visual artist Ali Cherri returns to Cannes with The Sentinel, presented in a special screening at the Critics’ Week. Set over a single night on Bastille Day, the film follows a soldier briefly escaping military life before drifting into a nocturnal, fantastical world of desertion. Cherri previously presented his feature The Dam at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2022, the year he received the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale.
Arab cinema is also represented at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight with two films from Morocco and Sudan. Moroccan filmmaker Saïd Hamich Benlarbi presents the medium-length film In Search of the Grey Bird with Green Stripes, which follows a man travelling through the Atlas Mountains south of Marrakech in search of a mysterious bird. Benlarbi previously presented his feature The Sea in the Distance at Critics’ Week, while his short The Departure received a César nomination.
Sudanese filmmaker Ibrahim Omar joins the same section with the short film Nothing Happens After Your Absence, centred on a filmmaker returning to his village hoping to organise film screenings before the outbreak of war in Sudan transforms the journey into a struggle for survival. Omar is a graduate of Cairo’s Higher Institute of Cinema and the founder of the Sudan Film Institute. His work explores exile, memory and post-trauma, while his debut hybrid feature Nothing Happens after the Revolution premiered at Visions du Réel 2026.
Two Arab films also join this year’s Un Certain Regard lineup. Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi presents his debut feature Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, set in the Bekaa Valley on the Lebanese-Syrian border, where after the disappearance of a young woman tensions unravel within a tightly knit Bedouin community where silence, revenge, and patriarchal traditions reign. The film was shot entirely in the Bekaa Valley with non-professional actors and without a traditional script. Mayasi previously directed acclaimed shorts including Bonboné and The Key.
Also selected is Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi with La Más Dulce (Strawberries), following two Moroccan women working as seasonal strawberry pickers in southern Spain as they confront exploitation and abuse while attempting to support their families back home. Marrakchi previously screened her debut feature Marock in Un Certain Regard in 2005 and later directed Rock the Casbah, in addition to episodes of The Eddy by Damien Chazelle.
Documentary projects from the region also maintain presence in this year’s Cannes Docs programmes. Among the Spotlighted Projects is Jinwar – Land of Women by Kurdish director Beyan Salah, following the women of a female-led village in northeast Syria attempting to preserve their community amid political upheaval and the threat of extremism. Salah previously won the Best Pitch Award at Edinburgh Pitch 2024 and worked as producer and co-cinematographer on the award-winning documentary Name Me Lawand.
Also selected in the Spotlighted Projects section is Disappeared by Palestinian filmmaker Anas Zawahri, centred on five women from Rif Dimashq searching for missing husbands and sons while trying to preserve their memory through everyday acts of survival and care. Zawahri’s first feature documentary, My Memory is Full of Ghosts, received a Special Mention at Visions du Réel and won Best Arab Documentary at the El Gouna Film Festival in 2024.
Meanwhile, Jordanian filmmaker Rand Beiruty joins the CIRCLE Showcase with Portrait of A, a documentary following a young Romani woman in eastern Germany over seven years as she navigates love, betrayal and motherhood. Beiruty previously premiered her feature documentary Tell Them About Us at CPH:DOX 2024, while her short-animated documentary Shadows screened at the Venice International Film Festival.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 14 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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