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Global support for Palestine’s rights is growing, even in the film industry, where thousands of film workers have joined a pledge to boycott Israel’s cinema organizations considered complicit in the war in the Gaza Strip, and high-profile stars are supporting films that center the Palestinian people’s experience.

Yet, Palestinian-produced films still struggle to secure release and gain visibility – even after a major Academy Awards victory last year. To highlight the Palestinian vibrant heritage of cinema, we asked prominent Palestinian directors and artists to discuss their top Palestinian-made movies.

‘It Brought Me to Tears’: Mo Amer Reflects on All That’s Left Of You

Director Cherien Dabis’s film All That’s Left of You, which premiered this year at Sundance, is a unique cinematic work, unflinching and unforgettable. By portraying the story of a one Palestinian family, from its origins in pre-1948 the city of Jaffa through generations of displacement, it does not just tell a story – it honors a legacy.

The cinematography are vivid and transportive. Each scene feels intentional, each image a recollection – the citrus orchards of Jaffa, the streets of Nablus, the isolation of exile. The performances are unforgettable, showcasing Dabis’s remarkable range alongside multiple generations of the Bakris – the group of actors most synonymous with Palestinian cinema. They are complex, restrained and deeply real.

What’s most impressive is how seamlessly the movie moves between different eras without ever losing its emotional throughline. Each decade of the Palestinian history is depicted with remarkable precision, both visually and in feeling. The direction is masterful in that way, leading you through time with clarity and sensitivity.

In the final moments, I was brought to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the history, it’s about the unseen ways it influences who we are. It’s a film that lingers – not because of drama, but because of honesty.

• Mo Amer is a Palestinian-American performer and comedian and the creator of a well-known Netflix show.

‘The Most Wildly Original Palestinian Film Ever Made’: Cherien Dabis on Divine Intervention

A sunglasses-clad Palestinian female defiantly walks through a checkpoint. Israel’s troops watch, weapons raised, baffled. Her presence disarms them and brings the watchtower crashing down. It’s an iconic scene from director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has stayed with me ever since I initially watched the film. I was a second-year graduate cinema student at a university when it opened in the US in 2003. I recall being stunned by its power, its defiance, and its pure audacity.

During an era when the majority of Palestinian cinema leaned toward the serious or sad, Suleiman created a fresh direction. Through satire, deadpan acting, and almost silent storytelling, he portrayed the bizarre ridiculousness of life under military control. Portraying the film’s mute protagonist personally, he placed his own perspective at the heart of the narrative. That choice felt revolutionary. His presence was calm and restrained, which only magnified the tension all around him.

Divine Intervention is both deeply personal and highly political. Its imagery is universal, yet grounded in the divided existence of Palestinian self. Suleiman transforms separation, exile and defiance into something resembling art. The outcome is poignant, dreamlike, sometimes hilarious and always painfully truthful.

There was nothing remotely like it in Palestinian cinema at the period. It remains unique. It remains, for me, the most wildly original and creative Palestinian movie ever made.

• Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American filmmaker, writer, producer and actor, whose latest film is a selected submission for the Academy Awards.

‘A Remarkable New Voice’: Hany Abu Assad on To a Land Unknown

In my view, a outstanding film needs to do two aspects. It needs to deliver an experience that’s new, emotional and smart. It needs to give me an element I’ve been missing – a perspective that contradicts my belief system, a way to think about issues outside my own world, a view to a distinct era and place. Simply put, I need to feel enlightened, in spirit and in mind.

Second, it needs to impress me with its talent. A ability that is not focused trying to impress but is used to reveal to an idea deeper.

The film To a Land Unknown, which was launched last year, is precisely this kind of movie. Created by director Mahdi Fleifel, it is a tale about a pair of Palestinian friends looking for improved futures as refugees in Greece.

To a Land Unknown made me feel what it’s like to be a at-risk migrant, in a strange country, where all factors works against your attempts to escape the slum. It showed me that in certain situations, although conditions outside your influence work to hinder you, you personally can nonetheless turn into your own biggest obstacle. And its interplay between story and cinematic style floored me in its craft.

In To a Land Unknown, Palestine has gained a gifted artist that will serve its mission without shedding a single drop of blood.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian-Dutch director, writer and twice Oscar contender for his acclaimed films.

‘Even Livestock Are Seen as a Danger’: Basel Adra on The Wanted 18

One of my favorite Palestinian films is The Wanted 18. It tells the narrative of Palestinian people in Beit Sahour, a town near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, during the first intifada of the 1980s. It records their attempt to {