Cannes Docs: Palestine Showcase
19 May 2025 | 11:45-13:00
The Palestine Film Institute returns to the Marché du Film for the 7th year with a firm belief in the importance of supporting Palestinian cinema on international platforms - especially against the backdrop of relentless genocide against the people of Gaza and our ongoing struggle to preserve a Palestinian narrative.
Presented in partnership with Cannes Docs, the Palestine Showcase presents four feature documentaries in progress, providing filmmakers with a unique opportunity to share their work in progress with the global film community. These projects were selected by an independent international jury, have received bespoke mentorship by PFI industry consultants and are supported to access the festival through accreditation and travel stipends. We invite decision makers across the film industry to join us in creating a space to support and amplify Palestinian voices by joining the 2025 Palestine Showcase at Cannes Docs.
The months since October 2023 have underlined the great struggle we face as Palestinians to merely exist. Our arts and culture - and in particular, our cinema - have long played a fundamental role in protecting our narrative and reflecting the Palestinian struggle over the past 77 years. Against the backdrop of the current genocide, it has never been more urgent for Palestinian filmmaking to be platformed as a space of creative resistance, exchange and dialogue. The PFI’s work in supporting and promoting Palestinian narratives stems from the belief that we can rebuild the cultural infrastructure that has been destroyed; this is our commitment to a better future for the next generation. Our work to enable the participation of Palestinian filmmakers on their own terms in international forums is a vital part of this work.
Returning to Cannes for the 7th year, we are proud to present 4 documentaries in progress in partnership with Cannes Docs during the Marché du Film (16-21th May). These projects were selected by an independent international jury, have received bespoke mentorship by PFI industry consultants and are supported to access the festival through accreditation and travel stipends. We invite you to join us for the 2025 Palestine Showcase at Cannes Docs.
We thank all the individuals and institutions who have supported and amplified the voices and images of the Palestinian people and their filmmakers since our first presentations in Cannes, in 2018. Heartfelt thanks to the Cannes Doc team who have provided us with this vital safe space, we thank the friends who java pledged financial support to allow the participation of these projects teams. Finally we thank the filmmakers who keep believing in the power of storytelling, and their trust in the Institute to bring their films and projects to the international platform of Cannes.
In Solidarity
PFI team
Jurors Statement
The Palestine Film Showcase at Cannes takes on even greater significance this year. The jury, bearing a deep sense of responsibility, stands in full solidarity with the entire Palestinian film community in this moment of unprecedented pain and suffering. Now more than ever, documentary cinema demands a space for freedom, courage, remembrance, and commitment.
As members of this jury, we are honored to have had access to such a rich and diverse group of projects this year. We were impressed by the plurality of perspectives and the transcontinental reach of the projects. The projects embodied the expanse of the Palestinian diaspora, and the attachment to that identity transmitted through generations. We are grateful for the trust the Palestine Film Institute has bestowed on us and hope that each and every project finds its path to completion.
Francesco Giai Via
Is a film industry expert, programmer and trainer. He’s member of the selection committee of the Venice film festival and scout for the Venice Production Bridge, the industry platform of the festival. He’s member of EFA and of the Italian Cinema Academy Premi David di Donatello.
Rasha Salti
Is a researcher, writer and curator of art and film. Since 2017 she is the commissioning editor of La Lucarne, Arte France’s program strand for experimental documentary.
Keisha Nicole Knight
Is a researcher and cultural organizer whose work focuses on media infrastructures and marginalized voices. Keisha is committed to shared resources, information equity, and narrative change. Keisha is the Founder and Strategy Lead of Solidarity Media Network.
Selected Projects
Wolf Game
Director: Patricia El
Producer: Patricia El (The Office for Public Therapy Politics, USA & Spain)
Countries: Palestine, USA, Spain
Runtime: 90 min.
Stage of Production: Pre-production
Total budget in place: 28%
Looking for: co-producers, gap financing, strategic guidance, festivals
Synopsis:
Marginalized Israeli youth abandon urban life to claim biblical lands in area C of the West Bank through shepherding, displacing Palestinian shepherds from ancestral territory. Meanwhile, across the world, young engineers build crypto-powered farming empires in the metaverse. Though seemingly distant, these parallel worlds are deeply and unexpectedly connected.
Producer's profile:
The Office for Public Therapy Politics is a new media creative studio & documentary production company. We have been collaborating on multidisciplinary documentary and new media projects with technology and research institutions like NYU ITP, Snap, SAT, and National Geographic, as well as local non-profit, arts, and culture organizations in Palestine through collaborative, co-creative approaches to produce a variety of audio-visual productions. We have collaborated with: AM Qattan Foundation, The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Bait Byout, and more. Our work has been exhibited across galleries, cultural institutions and film festivals including: the Media Majlis, SITE Gallery, Fabric London, Artsy, FIPADOC, Venice International Film Festival, Geneva International Film Festival, Carthage International Film Festival, and more.
Director's Profile:
Patricia Echeverria Liras is a director and producer of documentary and new media works. Her work has premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, and has been featured in festivals including: Sheffield, Geneva, FIPADOC, and more.She runs “The Office for Public Therapy Politics” through which she has directed and produced international projects including a “Public Therapy Tour” across Palestine with AM Qattan Foundation and Matadero Madrid, “Outside In,” a playback performance with the Freedom Theatre, “Parallel Utopias,” at the Korean DMZ with National Geographic, “In This Land” with SAT (Société des arts Technologiques) NYU ITP, and the Venice Biennale College Lab. Her virtual reality documentary film “Remember this Place” premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2023.
My Rebel Heart
Director: Ida Kat Balslev
Producer: Sidsel Lønvig Siersted (Siersted Film, Denmark)
Countries: Denmark, Palestine
Runtime: 80-90
Stage of Production: Pre-production
Total budget in place: 27.7%
Looking for: Festival distribution, sales agent, distributors, buyers, co-producers, production funds, strategic partners, consultants.
Synopsis:
My Rebel Heart is a creative documentary that follows Yara, a young Palestinian actress and activist, as she navigates identity, resistance, and art under growing restrictions and violence.
Born in Jaffa— known to Palestinians as the 48-land—Yara straddles two worlds. She holds Israeli citizenship, speaks Arabic and Hebrew, and moves between Israel and the West Bank—a rare privilege. Trained in acting at Tel Aviv University, built on the ruins of Al-Shaykh Muwannis, she faces constant tension as many roles portray Palestinians through a stereotypical or distorted lens. She must therefore look carefully at every option: every opportunity forces her to weigh the political consequences, often consulting voices from the BDS movement.
As right-wing extremism and settler violence intensify, supported by the Israeli police and military, Yara witnesses friends and family being targeted. Though a citizen, she feels increasingly alienated. When a film she stars in is accepted to Cannes but labeled only as Israeli, she and the Palestinian cast refuse to attend. Instead, she immerses herself in Ramallah’s vibrant youth scene, joining a theater project to tell authentic Palestinian stories.
After October 7, 2023, the risks intensify. Activists are criminalized, and support for Gaza becomes dangerous. Yara steps back from protests to support her mother’s food business, but her daily acts—donating blood, aiding evacuations, awaiting prisoner lists—remain rooted in resistance. Torn between artistic ambition and harsh realities, Yara rediscovers her purpose in storytelling. Reading a prison-written play, she is reminded: art is resistance. My Rebel Heart offers an intimate glimpse into a generation fighting to exist—freely, creatively, and truthfully—under occupation.
Producer’s bio:
Sidsel Lønvig Siersted is an award-winning film producer based in Copenhagen. She has produced TV, documentary films, and series for nearly two decades, working on acclaimed titles such as Democrats (PBS), Something Better to Come (HBO Max), Aquarela (Sony Classics), and The Kingmaker (Showtime). She produced Natural Disorder (IDFA 2015) and Apolonia, Apolonia (IDFA Best Film Award 2022), which won five Danish Academy Awards and was Oscar-shortlisted in 2024. Other credits include A Modern Man (IDA-nominated), The Edge of Democracy (Oscar-nominated), and Hunting for Hedonia (Amazon Studios). Sidsel holds an MA in Film and Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen.
Contact info:
Producer Sidsel Lønvig Siersted
Director's bio:
Ida Kat Balslev is a Danish director and screenwriter based in Copenhagen. She studied philosophy at the University of Southern Denmark before earning her MgA in directing from the Dramatic Faculty DAMU in Prague, followed by film studies at FAMU and Alma Script Academy. Her work spans film, photography, installations, and visual theater. Ida has directed short films in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Denmark, including Lost Lovers Glory (2019), Norma(2018), and Wilki (2018), which have been screened at festivals such as Slow Film Festival, Film Spring Open, and City Lights Cinema Screenings. Her latest film, The Art of Falling (2022), was selected for Screen Talent Europe and screened in four Danish cinemas in 2023. She has participated in international labs and residencies, including the European Writers Desk (2022-2024), ZFF Academy (Best Pitch at Storylab, 2023), Valletta Filmlab (2019) and Midpoint Intensive (2017).
SAMA
Original title: سما
Directed by: Rabab Khamis
Produced by: Rashid Masharawi | Masharawi Fund for Films and Filmmakers in Gaza
Country of production: Palestine, France
Runtime: 60'
Expected release: September 2025
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: €124,020 (59.14% in place)
Looking for: Festivals, sales agents, distributors, buyers, co-producers
Synopsis:
Every day, Sama, a 10-year-old girl from Gaza, collects plastic and cardboard to sell as fuel, silently facing a suffering that surpasses her capacity in a world from which her childhood has been stolen.
Director’s Profile:
Rabab Khamis, was born on 25 December 1997 in Gaza, is a multimedia specialist with a diploma in digital media. She has directed children’s plays and worked as a drama and psychological support trainer. Khamis has acted in various productions and made one short documentary.
Producer’s Profile:
Rashid Masharawi is a Palestinian filmmaker, born in Gaza in 1962 to a refugee family from the city of Jaffa. He grew up in Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza. Masharawi lives and works between Ramallah and Paris. In 1996, he founded the Cinema Production Center in Ramallah with the aim of promoting local cinematic productions. He also established the Mobile Cinema Project in Palestine, which enabled the screening of films in all Palestinian refugee camps. Other projects he has founded include the Annual Children’s Film Festival and large workshops on film production and direction. Following the Israeli war on Gaza in 2023, Masharawi established the Masharawi Film Fund to provide opportunities for Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza. He produced the film From Ground Zero during the last war on Gaza, which was shortlisted for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2025 Oscars.
ASPHALT
Director: Hamza Hamideh
Producer: Mahmoud Massad
Countries: Jordan
Runtime : 90
Stage of Production : Post Production
Total budget in place : 65% of the $110000 total budget
Looking for: Gap financing, buyers, sales
Synopsis:
Against the backdrop of the escalating war in Gaza, 20-year-old Debs, a Palestinian refugee from the Baqa'a camp in Jordan, dreams of marrying his beloved. But amid the chaos and destruction, he is forced to postpone his wedding—his relatives in Gaza are being killed, one after another. Debs’s story embodies the suffering of an entire generation that has grown up in exile over the decades and within Palestinian refugee camps.
Director's bio:
Hamza achieved his B.A. degree in Software engineering from the University of Zarqa. His passion for photography began at an early age in his small neighborhood in Hashmi Shamali in Jordan where he started taking pictures of his surroundings and experimenting with photography which led him to develop a passion for storytelling. Since then, he has participated in numerous filmmaking and storytelling workshops in Amman in documentary and short filmmaking organized by the American Embassy in Jordan, Al Jazeera channel, and the Royal Film Commission (RFC) to help me gain a better understanding of this form of art. This year he was selected by the RFC to travel to Los Angeles to attend an international workshop.
Producer’s bio:
Mahmoud Massad is a Jordanian-Palestinian-Dutch, he directed 3 feature documentaries "Shatter Hassan", "Recycle" and "This is my picture when I was dead", reaching worldwide audiences and festivals in Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, IDFA, His First narrative film "Blessed Benefit" is featured on Netflix and his latest feature documentary, "Cinema Kawakeb" will be released this fall.
Consultants
Jihan El Tahri is an Egyptian-French award-winning director, writer, visual artist, and producer. She is the General Director of the Berlin-based documentary support and capacity-building institution DOX BOX. In 2017, Tahri was invited to join the Academy of Arts and Sciences (Oscars). Additionally, she is a mentor at the Documentary Campus in Germany and Ouaga Film Lab in Burkina Faso. Her recent work as a visual artist includes exhibitions in France, Germany, Norway, Mexico, and Poland. Tahri started her career as a foreign correspondent covering Middle Eastern politics. In 1990, she began directing and producing documentaries for the BBC, PBS, and Arte. Her award-winning documentaries include “Nasser”, which premiered in the official selection at Toronto International Film Festival and was the grand winner of the Africa Movie Academy Awards; and the Emmy-nominated “House of Saud”. Her writings include: “Les Sept Vies de Yasser Arafat” and “Israel and the Arabs: the 50 Years War”.
Lina Soualem is a French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker and actress based in Paris. Her award-winning debut documentary Their Algeria (2020) premiered at Visions du Réel and her second Bye Bye Tiberias (2023) at the Venice International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, and was nominated to represent Palestine at the Academy Awards 2024.
Team
Mohamed Jabaly is a Palestinian filmmaker and artist from Gaza City.
He won several Awards for his work, including Best Directing at IDFA for his latest film "Life is Beautiful – Al Haya Helwa", the Grand Prix Award at FIFDH, the International Competition Jury Award for Best Film at One World Festival and the Audience Award at Docville Belgium. His previous award-winning documentary, "Ambulance", has been shown at some of the world's largest film festivals and has been broadcast globally. Mohamed has held workshops in filmmaking for young people and served on juries for several film festivals.
Mohamed joined in co-founding Palestine Film Institute and he is the Producer of the Documentary Hub. Mohamed holds a BA from Nordland Film & Art College in Northern Norway and is currently pursuing his MA at the National Academy of Arts in Oslo while touring his new film.
Elhum Shakerifar is a producer, curator, poet and translator; she runs the London-based company Hakawati ('storyteller' in Arabic). Her credits include The Runner (2013, Saeed Taji Farouky), A Syrian Love Story (2015, Sean McAllister), Of Love & Law (2017, Hikaru Toda), Even When I Fall (2017, Sky Neal & Dara McLarnon), Ayouni (2020, Yasmin Fedda). Most recently, she was Executive Producer of Helene Kazan’s multi-sensory investigative tribute to Asmahan, Clear Night that launched at the Sharjah Biennial 2025, and she is currently producing films by Ana Naomi de Sousa, Brett Story and Mohamed Jabaly. Elhum’s award-winning productions have garnered her awards including a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding Debut (2016), a British Film Institute 'Vision Award' (2016) and the Women in Film & TV Factual Award (2017). As a film curator with particular focus on the SWANA region, she has worked with London Film Festival (2014-21), Shubbak – the festival of contemporary Arab culture (2015-19), BFI (Drama and Desire, the films of Youssef Chahine, 2023), Barbican (Poetry in Motion: Contemporary Iranian Cinema, 2019) and Art on the Underground. She has taught documentary at Freie Berlin, Goldsmiths, UCL as well as in Georgia, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia. Elhum is a member of APSA, and a voting BAFTA and AMPAS member.
