The Cannes Film Festival has long served as a global platform showcasing cinema from diverse cultures around the world, with Arab cinema continuing to play an important role at the prestigious international event.
The 79th edition of the festival is taking place from 12 to 23 May 2026 on the French Riviera, featuring a wide selection of films from across the world, including several notable Arab productions and projects.
Un Certain Regard La M&aacute;s Dulce (Strawberries) &mdash; La&iuml;la Marrakchi (Morocco, France, Spain, Belgium) Marrakchi opens her film in quiet motion: two Moroccan women traveling to pick strawberries under the Spanish sun, carrying dreams of home, family, and a better future. What follows is a slow, necessary reckoning. The sisterhood at the heart of Strawberries is its greatest strength, two women who support each other as a patriarchal system closes in with abuse, silence, and institutional indifference. Marrakchi does not flinch, but she also avoids sensationalism. The film earns its fury. Yesterday the Eye Didn&rsquo;t Sleep &mdash; Rakan Mayasi (Lebanon, Palestine, Belgium, Qatar, Saudi Arabia) Set in the fog of Lebanon&rsquo;s Bekaa Valley, the film begins with a truck set ablaze, triggering tensions within a tightly bound community. A missing woman, a desperate search, and sisters forced to sacrifice their futures in the name of peace shape a narrative that feels both mythic and painfully real. Mayasi captures how cycles of revenge unfold slowly, and how women often pay the highest price. La Cinef TJ28 (28 Days Left) &mdash; Yasmin Najjar (Finland) A Finnish-Palestinian woman completing voluntary military service in the Finnish Army&rsquo;s medical corps learns during a final exercise that the crisis in her father&rsquo;s homeland has escalated. Somewhere I Belong &mdash; Youssef Handous (Tunisia) Handous gently explores a simple yet profound question: what happens when home is no longer a place, but a feeling that cannot be found? A man returns to discover that the home he remembers has been reshaped by time. The film offers no easy answers, only the realization that belonging must be rebuilt repeatedly from what remains. Competition The Unknown (L&rsquo;Inconnue) &mdash; Arthur Harari (France, Italy) David Zimmerman, a photographer whose work remains unknown, becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman he meets at a party. After following her, he wakes up to find himself in her body. Critics&rsquo; Week &ndash; Special Screening The Sentinel &mdash; Arnaud Desplechin (Lebanon / France) Mathias Barillet, a 25-year-old student of forensic medicine and diplomat&rsquo;s son, moves from Germany to Paris. On his journey, he mysteriously comes into possession of a shrunken human head, which he cannot bring himself to abandon. Critics&rsquo; Week &mdash; Short Film Competition Nafron &mdash; Daood Alabdulaa (Syria, Germany) Set in post-conflict Damascus, a woman with no memory wanders through a city still marked by war. The film transforms absence into something physical and deeply haunting. &Agrave; quoi r&ecirc;vent les Maknines (What Do the Maknines Dream Of) &mdash; Sarra Ryma (Algeria, France) Over the course of a single day, two young Algerians prepare to leave everything behind and cross the Mediterranean. The film captures the emotional weight of departure, where goodbye and confession become inseparable. Directors&rsquo; Fortnight &Agrave; la Recherche de l&rsquo;Oiseau Gris aux Rayures Vertes &mdash; Said Hamich Benlarbi (Morocco, France) A man journeys through the Atlas Mountains south of Marrakesh in search of a mysterious bird. The film transforms a simple quest into a meditation on obsession, identity, and desire. Nothing Happens After Your Absence &mdash; Ibrahim Omar (Sudan) What begins as a story about a man trying to screen films for his community evolves into a survival narrative as war breaks out around him. The film reflects the fragile role of art in times of crisis. Egypt at the March&eacute; Egypt&rsquo;s official return to the March&eacute; du Film with its reopened pavilion marks a second consecutive year of institutional commitment to strengthening Arab cinema&rsquo;s global presence and expanding access to international buyers and programmers.
<iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmostafa.elkashef.98%2Fposts%2Fpfbid024bvSuq3agPyBCrh1YaGFRHLN4YYjNCmLp3SurNx6d5KH2qrzTA5MEQmKrMsi3xWcl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500" width="500" height="250" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Egyptian Cinematographer Mostafa El Kashef Continues Cannes Run The most quietly remarkable Egyptian story at this year's festival may be that of cinematographer Mostafa El Kashef, whose lens has now graced the Croisette four years running. His 2023 debut with &ldquo;I Promise You Paradise&rdquo; won the Nikon Discovery Award and the Rail d'Or, the first Egyptian film to claim the latter. He returned in 2024 with &ldquo;The Village Next to Paradise,&rdquo; the first Somali-shot film ever screened at Cannes, and again in 2025 &ldquo;with Aisha Can't Fly Away.&rdquo; This year, his camera is behind &ldquo;Ben'imana,&rdquo; directed by Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Cl&eacute;mentine Dusabejambo, premiering in Un Certain Regard. Whatever the festival, El Kashef seems to find the stories worth seeing. Final Thought Taken together, the Arab selections at the 79th Cannes Film Festival form a broader portrait of a region in motion, grappling with memory, migration, conflict, and identity. These are not films from the margins, but works positioned at the center of contemporary cinema, reflecting a region that continues to assert its voice on one of the world&rsquo;s most important cultural stages. Photo Credit: Festival de Cannes&rsquo; official page
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