Reel Palestine 2025: film festival line-up, dates and all you need to know

To a Land Unknown, the Oscar-shortlisted From Ground Zero and A State of Passion will hold their UAE premieres at the event

To a Land Unknown will hold its UAE premiere during the 11th year of Reel Palestine. Photo: Film Clinic

Organisers of the Reel Palestine film festival have announced the schedule for 2025.

Held once again at the independent movie theatre Cinema Akil in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, the annual event will showcase a wide variety of Palestinian stories.

This year’s festival, from January 24 to February 2, includes eight feature films and 13 short films, in addition to Q&A sessions with filmmaker, workshops and a souq.

The film selected to open what will be the 11th Reel Palestine festival is To a Land Unknown from director Mehdi Fleifel. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and recently won the Silver Yusr prize at the Red Sea festival in Jeddah. In addition, The National named it one of the best films of the year.

Also screening is A State of Passion. The latest documentary by filmmaker Carol Mansour (Aida Returns), it follows the experience of Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah in Gaza’s emergency rooms during the Israel-Gaza War. The Academy Award-shortlisted film From Ground Zero, a collection of 22 short films captured over 11 months in Palestine, will also be shown in the UAE for the first time.

Laila Abbas’s film Thank You for Banking with Us, which debuted at the London Film Festival in November, will hold its regional premiere, as will Goran Hugo Olsson’s Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, a documentary crafted from archival footage that chronicles how the conflict was covered over the decades.

Hell's Heaven by Karim Satoum is one of the films within From Ground Zero. Photo: Rashid Masharawi

Additional premieres include Passing Dreams from director Rashid Masharawi, about a 12-year-old boy on a journey to find his missing bird; Voyage Into Gaza, from director Piero Usberti, which follows a foreign traveller in Palestine whose life is changed by a number of young Palestinians; and Life is Beautiful from director Mohamed Jabaly.

Short films include Palestine Islands; Mar Mara; Mashed Potatoes; Post-Trauma; An Orange from Yaffa; Blood Like Water; In The Waiting Room; A Short Film About Kids; 45th Parallel; The Deer’s Tooth; Khaled and Nema; Upshot; and The Lizard of My Dream.

The Reel Palestine souq will feature 60 local businesses and social enterprises, with 18 coming directly from Palestine, offering food, crafts, apparel, art, books and more. The souq will be located in the alleys of Alserkal Avenue, while Kave will host workshops and cultural events.

The latest event, which honours the legacy of filmmaker Hani Jawhareih, considered the founding father of Palestinian cinema, will also offer the festival’s first audience award.

Tickets and more information can be found on Cinema Akil's website.