The Festival Ciné-Palestine returns for its 5th edition in Marseille from May 27 to 31, 2026, and its 12th edition in Paris and the Île-de-France region from June 5 to 14.

This year, the Festival Ciné-Palestine highlights films and filmmakers who have helped build common fronts by emphasizing the indivisibility of anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonial struggles. A center of gravity and a point of reference, Palestine is a space from which activists have emerged and a cinema has been forged. This cinema does not merely document struggles: it mobilizes and helps spread imaginaries in revolt.

Each film in the focus, conceived as a landmark case study in the history and present of militant cinema, will be followed by an extended discussion with our guests. Together, we will seek to understand which production practices contributed to the existence of these films, and which distribution channels led to them becoming effective calls to action. 

Some of the films in the focus bear witness to and examine the legacy of a revolutionary moment when various social and political movements collectively envisioned the construction of an alternative world ("Children of the Revolution", "To Count on One’s Own Strength", and "Alors"). Within this constellation, Palestine serves as an inspiration and also produces films in solidarity with other anti-imperialist groups ("The Revolution, for Whom?"). Today, alongside Palestinian cinema, what remains of internationalist film movements such as the Third Cinema and Alternative Arab Cinema ("Palestine Another Vietnam", "A Feeling Greater than Love")? What new forms of cinematic action are emerging alongside the new means of production that accompany current mobilizations ("To Kill a War Machine", Queer Cinema for Palestine)?

By filming, and by responding through action to the call of images that invite us to identify with and take part in the struggle ("Jamila’s Mirror"), the aim—both in the past and today—is to reject defeatism and express a form of love. Within the Festival Ciné-Palestine, and in collaboration with our fellow archivists from around the world, we seek to arm the struggles of the present with memory and pass this rebellion on to future generations by caring for its images ("Palestine Will Win", "A Feeling Greater than Love").

As it has done every year since October 7, in response to the urgent situation, the Festival is also honoring Gaza and its filmmakers: several screenings of films from Gaza will take place on June 29 and 30 in Marseille, and on June 7, 9, and 14, in Paris, Saint-Denis, and Ivry, in the presence of Mahmoud Nabil and Mahmoud Alhaj. This year we are also dedicating screenings in tribute to the late Mohammad Bakri—on May 28 with the opening in Marseille, and on June 7 in Paris with "Janin, Janin" (2024)—and Leïla Shahid, on Saturday, June 13 in Paris with "Genet in Chatila" (1999).

The vitality of contemporary Palestinian cinema will be highlighted during this year’s edition through several films that have garnered attention at international festivals, such as Rakan Mayasi’s "Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep", Alex Bakri’s "Habibi Hussein", and Lamia Joreige’s "Casting for a Film, Ihsan’s Diary*, as well as a selection of previously unreleased short films.

The short film competition, which honors works by five young Palestinian filmmakers, returns for its 10th edition on June 6, 2026, at Luminor Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Following the screening, an Audience Award and a Jury Prize will be attributed.

The FCP is also the presence of Palestinian cinema on movie screens throughout the year, through the Ciné-Club FCP or the screenings in partnership with other groups, which give audiences the opportunity to discover or see again the films of preceding festival editions. The Ciné-Club FCP takes place in our partner cinemas as well as other locations (bars, cultural centers, associative centers, community gardens ...) in Marseille, Paris and the Île-de-France region, offering a more informal framework for sharing and meeting.

For the fifth consecutive year, three Palestinian filmmakers will receive guidance from three experts in Arab cinema to develop their screenplay projects. Throughout the month of June, this writing residency—supported by the Récollets Residency Center and the French Consulate in Jerusalem—will alternate between individual work sessions and workshops led by industry professionals.