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MoviesFestivalsCinema

by Sophie She

Arab Cinema Is Shining At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

29 May 2025

Instagram: @arab_nasser88

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival was a strong year for Arab cinema, both in the spotlight and in substance. From the main competition to Un Certain Regard (2025), filmmakers from the Middle East and North Africa delivered bold and emotionally resonant stories that pushed boundaries and challenged prevailing narratives. Whether exploring power, personal freedom, migration, or identity, these films underscored the growing artistic force and global relevance of Arab voices in cinema.
This year’s standout entries — from Iran, Palestine, Egypt, and Tunisia — weren’t just regional contributions, but essential parts of the festival’s most talked-about moments. The Arab presence extended beyond the screen, too, with a notable showing of actors, producers, and creators on the red carpet, signaling a cultural movement with real momentum.
Let’s dive in what happened this year.
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Instagram: @morad.mostafaa

Jafar Panahi’s triumphant return with “Un Simple Accident” (2025)

The pinnacle of this year’s festival was marked by the Palme d'Or win for “Un Simple Accident” (2025), a powerful fictional thriller by Iranian director Jafar Panahi.
To give you some context, the last time an Arab director won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival was in 1975, when Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina from Algeria won for his film “Chronique des années de braise” (1975) (Chronicle of the Years of Fire). This film, which depicted the Algerian struggle for independence, remains a landmark in Arab and African cinema — and it held the distinction for decades as the only Arab-directed film to win Cannes’ top prize.
Back to the present, produced by Les Films Pelleas, this film marked Panahi's return to Cannes' main competition seven years after “Three Faces” (2018). In times, when freedom is rationed and truth often hidden in metaphor, Panahi's minimalist yet razor-sharp cinema again served as an act of defiance.
Unlike his previous Brechtian-style films, “Un Simple Accident” 92025) adopts a more conventional cinematic language — thrilling, suspenseful, and seemingly straightforward. But beneath its simplicity lies a philosophical confrontation with tyranny. The story, ignited by a minor incident, unravels into a layered depiction of everyday resistance in quiet, resolute ways.
Bold, scary, and loud.

Tarik Saleh closes the Cairo Trilogy with “Eagles of the Republic” (2025)

Another Arab motion picture worth mentioning — the “Eagles of the Republic” (2025) — which is the grand finale of Tarik Saleh’s provocative Cairo Trilogy. The Swedish director (you now see why it is a trilogy, yeah? Say hi to Scandi film school) of Egyptian origin continues his exploration of Egypt’s moral ecosystem, this time through a self-reflective lens of “cinema within cinema.”
Fares Fares, a recurring collaborator and one of the most compelling actors working today, plays George El-Nabawi, a has-been actor forced to play President Al-Sissi in a state-sponsored biopic. As the lines blur between performance and participation in a propaganda machine, Saleh’s noirish thriller probes the existential question: “Should I bow to the system?” It is sharp, daring cinema, buttressed by a powerful cast including Zineb Triki, Lyna Khoudri, and Amr Waked.
Through his trilogy, Tarik has chronicled his vision of everyday world issues with a noir scalpel — precise, cool, and deeply human.

The Nasser brothers tell a tale of Gaza in “Once Upon a Time in Gaza” (2025)

In Un Certain Regard, twin Palestinian filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser returned with “Once Upon a Time in Gaza” (2025), a gritty yet heartfelt portrait of life under siege. This time, their brushstrokes depict a friendship between a despairing student and a troubled restaurant owner navigating survival and betrayal.
Gaza itself becomes a breathing character in the Nasser brothers’ world — a place where humanity persists amid rubble and resistance. Their aesthetic, born not of film school but of instinct and art, imbues each frame with texture and emotion. As they said, “Cinema becomes a blank canvas on which we paint our ideas and emotions.”

Migration and feminine solidarity in “Promis le ciel” (2025) by Erige Sehiri

Opening the Un Certain Regard section, Tunisian director Erige Sehiri's “Promis le ciel” (2025) (Promised Sky) explored migration within Africa, flipping the narrative of the continent as merely a place of departure. Following three women from diverse backgrounds and their encounter with a child rescued from a shipwreck, the film explores complex social hierarchies, belonging, and the silent burden of women left to heal generational trauma.
Sehiri blends fiction and documentary in a setting so alive it bleeds into the real. Her bold choice to cast both professionals and non-actors results in an atmosphere of raw emotional realism. With power and grace, Sehiri repositions the North African identity within the wider African diaspora, asking: who defines home, and who carries the weight of survival?

Morad Mostafa’s debut with “Aïsha Can’t Fly Away” (2025)

Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa, previously known for his evocative shorts, presented his debut feature “Aïsha Can’t Fly Away” (2025) in Un Certain Regard. Set in Cairo’s Ain Shams neighborhood, the film tells the story of Aïsha, a Somali immigrant drawn into a dangerous pact with a local gang.
Through a handheld, free-form visual style, Mostafa gives voice to a minority — African immigrants in Egypt — and challenges their invisibility in cinema. The film is visceral and empathetic, driven by non-professional actors whose authenticity breaks through the screen. Mostafa’s work is as much about reclaiming identity as it is about reckoning with societal blindness.

Arab presence shines on and off the screen

The Arab presence at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival wasn’t limited to the films in competition — it was felt across red carpets, press rooms, and festival events, reflecting a growing confidence and visibility on the international stage.
A wave of Arab actors and personalities brought both elegance and energy to Cannes this year. Salma Abu Deif arrived in style with a RIMOWA Original Trunk Plus in Silver, while Razane Jammal turned heads in Dior.
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Source: press-materials; Instagram: @razanejammal

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival affirmed that Arab cinema is coming out of the margins, establishing itself as a firmly part of the global cinematic conversation. We all love the Cannes Film Festival for having the power and courage to acclaim and admit the talents from across the globe, and not only from the West.
This year’s Arab filmmakers brought stories that were deeply grounded in their realities yet universally resonant, tackling themes of power, identity, migration, and resistance through perspectives rarely seen on the international stage.