The year is coming to a close and, with that in mind, the team at The National has been looking back at the work that shaped 2025 across the arts world.
With award-winning films including The Voice of Hind Rajab and The President's Cake, Arab cinema continues to break new ground – in subject matter, in artistry and in resonance.
In the context of ongoing regional conflict, film has also become one of the most direct ways for audiences beyond the region to engage with its history, its culture and, crucially, its humanity.
Closer to home, the picture is even richer. These films point to a new golden age taking shape – one defined by range rather than uniformity, and by stories that move confidently across genres and forms. Find more here.
Across the rest of the world, our 10 best films of the year were often deeply political and quietly revolutionary – including Brazil's The Secret Agent, South Korea's No Other Choice and Iran's It Was Just an Accident.
In television, the volume of global streaming releases continued to expand. Our favourites span prestige dramas, genre series and unexpected breakouts. Elsewhere, Indian television made further inroads with international audiences, with seven shows in particular resonating well beyond their home markets.
Music moved across registers through the year. The 50 best Arabic songs of 2025 reflected a range of sounds and voices, from established artists to emerging figures shaping the region’s musical landscape.
Live performances also illuminated the calendar: from Coldplay’s multi-night runs at Sheikh Zayed Sports City to headline concerts by Metallica and Katy Perry, the UAE’s best concerts and on-stage events mapped a remarkably active year in live touring and local attendance
Visual art in the UAE maintained its momentum. The most memorable exhibitions of 2025 ranged from exhibitions grounded in heritage and craft to large-scale international presentations, reflecting the breadth of programming across institutions and independent spaces.
In games, 2025 delivered a number of standout releases across platforms. The year’s best titles, including highlights on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 as well as PC games, were shaped by atmosphere, narrative and design, pointing to the medium’s continued evolution.
Online, things circulated at a different pace. From viral moments to the rise of “6-7” and Gen Alpha as a cultural force, meme culture and digital language provided a running record of how humour, fatigue and connection moved through the year in real time.
The Arab cultural scene has been etched by significant loss in 2025, with the deaths of luminaries including Ziad Rahbani and Mohammad Bakri.
As the world continues to grapple with ongoing crises, culture has remained a vital space for collective expression, reflection and even moments of joy. Now we shall see what 2026 has in store.
New exhibition shines light on women during golden age of Arab music and cinema
From Fairuz and Asmahan to Umm Kulthum and Sabah, the stars of the Arab world’s golden age of cinema and music remain treasured cultural icons. But how much is really known about the women behind the fame?
This is something a new exhibition at Beirut’s Sursock Museum explores, reports Maghie Ghali. Diva: From Umm Kulthum to Dalida, celebrates legendary singers, actresses and dancers while also unpacking the personal struggles they faced in a post-war, post-colonial Arab world.
“In the 1960s, Beirut, alongside Cairo, was a capital of Arab music,” says Sursock Museum director Karina El-Helou. “Here, divas such as ‘Star of the East’ Umm Kulthum, who gave an unforgettable performance at Baalbeck International Festival, and Fairuz – ‘Ambassador of Lebanon to the Stars’ – played a decisive role in shaping modern Arab music.”
The exhibition is structured into four sections: the first traces the pioneering women and avant-garde feminists of cosmopolitan Cairo in the 1920s; the second section focuses on divas with golden voices from the 1940s to the 1970s; the third section turns to the golden age of Egyptian cinema, often dubbed Nilewood; and the final section brings these legacies into the present, examining how the influence of the divas continues to shape contemporary artistic practice.
Read more here.
National Museum of Qatar reflects on 50 years of reinvention
Celebrating its anniversary with a retrospective exhibition titled A Nation’s Legacy, A People’s Memory: Fifty Years Told, the National Museum of Qatar offers a comprehensive survey of its journey – from modest beginnings to present-day reinvention.
Since its founding in 1975 by former Emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani as one of the first museums in the Gulf, the institution has remained a source of pride and identity for the people of Qatar.
Drawing on archival documents, photographs and personal testimonies, the exhibition traces the museum’s evolution across five decades, highlighting key exhibitions and programmes, its role in preserving national heritage, and its reopening in 2019 as a state-of-the-art, institution housed in a building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.
“For half a century, the National Museum of Qatar has safeguarded the legacy of our nation and its national treasures, while continually developing new ways of storytelling through advances in technology,” says museum director Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Thani. “With A Nation’s Legacy, A People’s Memory: Fifty Years Told, we invite audiences to celebrate the institution’s record of honouring our heritage while imagining what lies ahead.
Find more here.
Dates for your diary
- Cyrine Abdelnour at Palazzo Versace Dubai – December 31
- Tomorrowland presents Miss Monique and Rivo at Terra Solis Dubai – December 31
- Ahmed Saad and Siilawy at Al Majaz Amphitheatre, Sharjah – December 31
Other highlights
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