Across five disciplines and 11 countries, the 2026 Culture Resource (Al Mawred) Production Grants paint a picture of young Arab artists creating in a time of crisis. Together with the jury’s comments, the 29 projects selected – by artists and writers under 35 – reflect the realities surrounding artistic production across the region.
These are not artists making work in spite of the region’s crises; they are making work out of them, with them, and sometimes against them. War, displacement, fractured identity and the weight of inherited memory run through the projects in every discipline, not as background noise but as the centrepiece. For Omani writer and academic Jokha Alharthi, who served on the literature jury, most of the texts submitted showed a deep personal impulse and a sombre awareness of a world in crisis. “To hold fast to creativity during these times is a silent act of resilience,” she said. “To write is to survive.” Her fellow juror, Sudanese novelist Hammour Ziada, saw the same impulse differently, not so much as resilience but longing. Each project, he said, “presented a fragment of a dream for a more beautiful world, one its creators long to share with others.”
From the performing arts jury, Egyptian theatre director Nora Amin saw the work take more confrontational shape. The young artists, she said, “reminded us that theatre is an act of resistance, a means of safeguarding memory and identity, and a path toward healing and reimagining human connection and collective empathy in the face of war, genocide, and destruction.” Iraqi director and choreographer Anmar Taha and Tunisian theatre director Moez Mrabet, who also served on the jury, were struck by the creative spirit with which the artists confronted their realities. Mrabet said the jury focused on selecting projects that demonstrated the strongest connection to the social and political contexts they emerged from.
But resistance is not the only trope the juries encountered. Tunisian filmmaker Mohamed Ismail Louati, on the cinema jury, noted a strong pull towards self-reflection. Many projects revisited the past and sought to reinterpret it, “as though the current regional and global upheavals are pushing towards a more contemplative approach,” he said, “sometimes used as a shield for self-affirmation, and at other times as a way to rethink identity and rewrite contemporary history.” Syrian filmmaker and producer Hala Alabdalla, on the jury, observed that whether the works were personal or social, poetic or political, each reflected a steady commitment, confirming “the vitality and diversity of artistic production in times of uncertainty, within a region where cinema continues to serve as a vessel for dreams and a form of resistance.”
What also stands out across the disciplines is how these young artists are navigating the relationship between heritage and contemporary form. Moroccan creative producer Othman Nejmeddine, on the music jury, highlighted approaches that seek to reinterpret musical heritage and folk traditions “with respect and without distortion.” Jordanian singer and songwriter Mackadi Nahhas, also on the music jury, centred her evaluation on artistic value and originality, and the significance of each project’s contribution to the musical archive. For his part Syrian composer Kinan Azmeh said the submissions restored his faith: “This part of the world still has the power to offer a glimpse of hope in the heart, despite the succession of defeats and tragedies”.
The same tension between tradition and innovation ran through the visual arts, where Lebanese artist Bassam Kahwaji noted recurrent themes: identity, displacement, heritage and political concerns, across a diverse range of approaches and backgrounds. Moroccan curator Ibtissam Ghazoui was moved by the resilience reflected across the submissions. “Turning trauma and tragedies into creative works that speak directly to affected communities is deeply inspiring,” she said, “standing as an act of continuity and steadfastness.” Egyptian contemporary artist Ibrahim Ahmed, also on the visual arts jury, hoped the many projects that resonated but were not selected would still find their way to life.
The juries also reflected on the conditions in which this work is being made. Kahwaji noted that the volume of submissions highlighted the challenges of arts funding across the Arab region, given the limited role of the state. Egyptian director Mostafa Youssef, on the cinema jury, was direct about the difficulty of selection. “Many funding opportunities create a false sense of power and contribute to unhealthy competition among filmmakers,” he said. “Good films will find their way, and true filmmakers will come together to create, with or without grants, because for them, cinema is a necessity, not a luxury.” Palestinian poet and editor Asmaa Azaizeh, on the literature jury, spoke of a responsibility felt in the face of so much work. “One feels compelled to do justice to the writing scene,” she said, “even as it remains fragmented into smaller worlds across homelands and harsh exiles.”
The 29 projects selected this year are geographically distributed as follows: Tunisia leads with six recipients, followed by Palestine and Syria with four each, Egypt and Lebanon with three each, Iraq, Morocco and Sudan with two each, and Yemen, Oman and Algeria with one each. Since its founding in 2004, the programme has supported young Arab artists and writers under 35 across literature, visual art, music and sound arts, performing arts and cinema, funding over 25 projects annually and awarding more than 600 grants over 22 years.
In cinema, five projects were selected this year. Sudan’s Ibrahim Ahmed (Snoopy) presents Where Do I Belong?, a feature documentary about exile and return to a devastated Sudan, while Syria’s Alayham Ali and Amr Alshashou explore family, belonging and the body in After Three Years of Green (working title). Egypt’s Mahmoud Ibrahim brings us Kafr El Dawar Athens, following two brothers confronting migration and a fading industrial city. Palestine’s Sarah Zeryab returns to the Palestinian camp as a site of memory and loss in the experimental Notes on Camp (working title), and Algeria’s Samia Dzair traces migration and inherited memory in the hybrid animation project Threads of Exile.
Six projects were selected in the performing arts. Tunisia’s Ahmed Guerfel presents Post…, a contemporary dance performance exploring the body and collective support systems, while Syria’s Hussain Al Hasan’s In the Ice follows two young people trapped within cycles of war and displacement. From Palestine, Abdallah Damra’s Factory of All Fabrics combines movement and sound to reflect on memory and belonging, and Jana Ismail’s The Land Is Dancing Too is a dance performance for children bringing together live performance and video around ideas of resilience and collaboration. Lebanon’s Ghina Abboud offers Souad’s Party, a realist play set during a tense gathering in Damascus under Assad’s rule, while Tunisia’s Moayed El Ghazouani’s Into the Deep revisits the role of women in Tunisia’s 2008 mining basin uprising through documentary theatre.
The visual arts selection brings together six projects exploring memory, migration, identity and collective experience through installations, photography, archives and experimental forms. Lebanon’s Paul Saad presents Every Door Has Its Key, Every Land Has Its Peasant Farmer (Falah), an interactive exhibition centred on farmers’ narratives from the Levant, while Morocco’s Reda Boudina (RDS) gives us Silent Layers, a sculptural and sound installation exploring urban fragility. Tunisia’s Zeineb Kaabi uses AI and Mediterranean tile archives in the public installation Tetris of Zliz, and Sana Chamakh documents the scars carried by Tunisian women across generations in Scars Archive (working title). Yemen’s Haroun Al-Sallal traces his mother’s journey through the photographic exhibition My Mother, the Flowers, and Our Story, and Sudan’s Waleed Mohammed reflects on war and return in the illustrated art book What Will We Return To?.
In literature, six projects were selected this year, spanning autobiography, oral history, memoir, testimony, fiction and illustrated storytelling. Egypt’s Ahmed Nageeb explores inherited silence and masculinity in the autobiographical project My Father Doesn’t Smile, and Iraq’s Aya Mansour Hasan revisits three decades of war through the oral history project Women of the Long River. Oman’s Amal Alsaeedi blends memoir and collective memory in The Cultural History of the Grocery Store, and Iraq’s Shahad Mohammed Qays gathers testimonies from former Syrian army conscripts in the testimony-based project Was a Conscript. Morocco’s Karima Ahdad traces the intertwined lives of two women across different eras in the novel The Partridge of the Barren Land, while Syria’s Kinda Youssef presents an illustrated poetic story in The Adventure of Ward (working title).
Six projects round out this year’s music and sound arts selection. Egypt’s Abanoub Fam presents AL HALA, a debut album drawing on Upper Egyptian and Bedouin musical traditions through an experimental contemporary sound. From Palestine, Amal Shamia (Amali) brings us A Picture That’s Not Mine, ten songs written in the aftermath of the war on Gaza. Tunisia’s Ons Boussi revives undocumented women’s songs in Mima, while Khalil Hentati’s Tuqus explores Mediterranean ritual music through a cine-concert experience. Lebanon’s Samah Boulmona develops stereoteismo as both a digital album and live performance project, while Syria’s Souhir Saleh documents traditional lullabies and their relationship to identity and collective memory in Language of the Cradle.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 28 May, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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