Newsletters
The Doha Film Festival (DFF 2026) will bring together 15 feature films from four continents for its International Feature Film Competition, with four Palestinian productions among the selected titles.
Organized by the Doha Film Institute, the festival will take place in Qatar's capital from Nov. 19 to 27, featuring fiction and documentary films exploring displacement, family relationships, cultural identity and social struggles.
The Palestinian selections include "Thirteen in Gaza," "Sama," "In Conversation with the Sea," and "Revolutionaries Never Die," according to the institute.
Festival Director and Doha Film Institute CEO Fatma Hassan Al Remaihi said cinema could carry voices across borders and bring people together, emphasizing the festival's commitment to filmmakers who challenge established narratives and bring previously unheard stories to the screen.
Palestinian director Hossam Abu Dan's "Thirteen in Gaza," filmed entirely in Gaza, follows a 13-year-old boy who has lost his mother and is living in a displacement camp.
The film previously won the NETPAC Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Rabab Khamis' documentary "Sama" will make its world premiere in Doha, telling the story of a 10-year-old girl in Deir al-Balah who collects plastic and cardboard to sell as fuel to help support her family.
Meanwhile, Muayad Alayan's "In Conversation with the Sea" follows a Palestinian man from Jerusalem whose son reportedly drowned in the Red Sea over two decades earlier.
His past resurfaces when an Israeli court orders him to pay a substantial social security debt attributed to his deceased son.
Mohanad Yaqubi's "Revolutionaries Never Die" draws on 113 film reels preserved by Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab throughout her life. Inspired by Saab's last email to Yaqubi, the documentary previously received the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival.
Among the other selections, Asmahan Bkerat's "Concrete Land," filmed over eight years, follows a Palestinian Bedouin family of African descent living among luxury villas on the outskirts of Amman.
Tala Hadid's "Bardi" explores Morocco's centuries-old Tbourida tradition, an equestrian performance in which farmers and workers recreate scenes involving warriors and princes.
Set in war-torn Yemen, Sara Ishaq's debut feature "The Station" unfolds at a women-only gas station, where a woman named Layal reconnects with her estranged sister to protect their brother from possible military conscription.
Two African productions focus on families facing different challenges. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu's "House of the Wind" follows an 80-year-old woman in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, who builds a house hoping to bring back her children living in Western countries. Hugo Salvaterra's "My Semba" centers on three orphaned siblings struggling to get by in Luanda, Angola.
Asian entries include Sompot Chidgasornpongse's "9 Temples to Heaven," about a family visiting nine temples in a single day in hopes of keeping their grandmother alive, and Zou Jing's "A Girl Unknown," which follows a girl abandoned at birth and raised among three families in 1990s China.
Rafael Manuel's "Filipinana" follows a young employee at a Manila golf club who discovers violence behind its carefully maintained lawns.
Manuela Martelli's "The Meltdown" takes place in Chile in 1992, following a nine-year-old girl whose friend disappears near her grandparents' ski hotel.
Alessandra Sanguinetti's documentary "The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer" traces the lives of two cousins in Argentina's Pampas region over 25 years.
The final selection, Alexander Murphy's "Tin Castle," follows an Irish Traveller family, consisting of two parents and 10 children, as they struggle to preserve their way of life while facing eviction from their old caravan home.
The 15 competing films will be evaluated by a five-member international jury, while the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), an organization representing professional film critics, will present a separate award through its three-member jury.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
