Taking place over October and November in California, the 18th edition of the Arab Film Festival is set to feature independent Arab productions with a special focus on comedies, video art, animation and children's films.

The festival has released the dates for its three initial cities: 10-23 October in the San Francisco Bay Area, 7-12 November in Los Angeles and 20-22 November in San Diego. More cities are to be announced soon.

The 2013 edition featured Egyptian films like Hind Meddeb's Electro Chaabi, Amr Salama's Asmaa and the documentary In Search of Oil and Sand. Other productions included two films from Lebanon, Eliane Rehab's civil war documentary Sleepless Nights and Rania Stephan's The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosny, and When I Saw You by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir.