Sheffield DocFest 2026 Highlights Films From The Middle East And Nearby Regions

Festival Coverage | Sheffield, 10-15 June 2026 | Films Connected To Palestine, Gaza, Syria, Iran, Algeria, Iraq And Lebanon

Souzian Dispatch has received press accreditation for Sheffield DocFest 2026 and will cover this year’s festival with a focus on documentaries linked to the Middle East, North Africa and neighbouring regions.

The festival will take place from 10 to 15 June 2026 in Sheffield, bringing together films, talks, live events, podcast stories, immersive works and industry sessions across the city.

This year’s programme includes 104 films from around the world. Souzian Dispatch will follow titles connected to Palestine, Gaza, Syria, Iran, Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon, with attention to stories of war, exile, memory, resistance and displacement.

Screenings and events will be held across several Sheffield venues, including Showroom Cinema, The Light Cinema, Curzon Cinema, the Crucible, the Lyceum Theatre and the Montgomery Theatre. Most venues are within walking distance of each other, though the festival notes that Sheffield can be hilly for visitors with reduced mobility.

Tickets are available through the Sheffield DocFest website and festival app. They can also be bought in person at Showroom Cinema from 1 June, and at selected venues during the festival.

Souzian Dispatch Covers Middle Eastern Films At Sheffield DocFest 2026

Palestine And Gaza

American Doctor

Director: Poh Si Teng
Production: USA, Palestine, Qatar, Malaysia
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: International Competition, Rebellions

Story: Three American doctors volunteer in Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals. The humanitarian catastrophe they witness compels them to carry their fight far beyond the wards and back to Washington.

Screenings: Thursday, June 11, 12:45 PM (Showroom - Screen 2); Friday, June 12, 3:45 PM (Curzon - Screen 1); Sunday, June 14, 8:45 PM (Curzon - Screen 3)

Life Support

Director: Daniele Rugo
Production: United Kingdom, Palestine, Qatar
Premiere status: World Premiere
Section: Tim Hetherington Award, People & Community

Story: A group of international doctors breach the blockade of Gaza. What they find is the calculated dismantling of life itself.

Screenings: Saturday, June 13, 5:45 PM (Showroom - Screen 4); Sunday, June 14, 1:15 PM (Curzon - Screen 2)

Landscapes of Memory

Director: Leah Galant
Production: USA, Germany
Premiere status: International Premiere
Section: Youth Jury Award, Rebellions

Story: An American filmmaker travels to Berlin to confront her family’s Holocaust history, only to be detained at a pro-Palestinian demonstration and charged with antisemitism.

Screenings: Thursday, June 11, 6:00 PM (Showroom - Screen 1); Saturday, June 13, 8:45 PM (Curzon - Screen 3); Sunday, June 14, 10:00 AM (Curzon - Screen 1)

Scenes from an Encampment

Director: Bowie Alexander
Production: USA
Premiere status: World Premiere
Section: Film Programme

Story: Five months before campus protests went global, a camera inside Columbia University’s Gaza Solidarity encampment captures the students building a movement from the ground up.

Screenings: Saturday, June 13, 9:00 PM (The Light - Screen 9); Sunday, June 14, 6:30 PM (Showroom - Screen 2)

The Wanted 18

Directors: Paul Cowan, Amer Shomali
Production: Canada, France
Section: Guest of Honour Programme

Story: A Palestinian village buys eighteen cows to produce its own milk. The Israeli army declares them a threat to national security.

Screening: Saturday, June 13, 10:00 AM (Showroom - Screen 2)

all that appears solid is built on blood

Directors: Izdihar Afyouni, Gelare Khoshgozaran
Production: United Kingdom, Palestine
Premiere status: World Premiere
Section: International Short Film Competition, Shorts: Acts of Witness

Story: Footage documenting the making of a mass grave in Khan Younis, Gaza is slowed frame by frame, re-shot on film and soaked in human blood.

Screenings: Wednesday, June 10, 4:30 PM (Showroom - Screen 3); Thursday, June 11, 6:30 PM (Curzon - Screen 2)

Syria, War And Exile

Birds of War

Directors: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak
Production: United Kingdom, Syria, Lebanon
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Tim Hetherington Award, Journeys

Story: Over thirteen years of revolution, war and exile, a Lebanese journalist and a Syrian activist document their love story through text messages, voice notes and footage from the front lines.

Screenings: Thursday, June 11, 6:30 PM (Showroom - Screen 4); Saturday, June 13, 3:30 PM (The Light - Screen 9); Sunday, June 14, 3:15 PM (Curzon - Screen 3)

Hell’s Army

Director: Richard Rowley
Production: Ukraine, Syria, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Lithuania, France, Netherlands
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Memories

Story: A dissident Russian journalist uncovers a shadowy mercenary army in Syria, sparking a dangerous investigation that spans three continents.

Screenings: Saturday, June 13, 3:00 PM (Showroom - Screen 3); Sunday, June 14, 6:15 PM (The Light - Screen 6)

Killing Anna

Director: Sam Benstead
Production: United Kingdom
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Memories

Story: When footage of a massacre is smuggled out of Syria, one researcher risks everything to expose the truth about those responsible.

Screenings: Friday, June 12, 6:30 PM (The Light - Screen 9); Saturday, June 13, 10:15 AM (The Light - Screen 9)

One In A Million

Directors: Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes
Production: United Kingdom, USA
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Journeys

Story: Filmed over ten years, a Syrian family’s journey from a shelled apartment in Aleppo to a new life in Germany reveals the hidden costs of survival.

Screenings: Thursday, June 11, 9:00 PM (Showroom - Screen 4); Saturday, June 13, 12:30 PM (Curzon - Screen 2)

Allies in Exile

Directors: Hasan Kattan, Fadi Al Halabi
Production: United Kingdom, Syria
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Shorts: Stories of Displacement

Story: For fourteen years, Syrian filmmakers Hasan Kattan and Fadi Al-Halabi have documented war, revolution and each other. Now, confined to a UK asylum hotel, they turn their cameras inward.

Screenings: Friday, June 12, 3:15 PM (Showroom - Screen 1); Sunday, June 14, 10:00 AM (Showroom - Screen 3)

Maybe Tomorrow

Directors: Waad Al-Kateab, Wafa Mustafa
Production: United Kingdom, Syria, Germany
Premiere status: World Premiere
Section: International Short Film Competition, Shorts: Stories of Displacement

Story: When activist Wafa Mustafa’s father disappears under Assad’s regime, her search for answers becomes a story of memory, identity and resilience.

Screenings: Friday, June 12, 3:15 PM (Showroom - Screen 1); Sunday, June 14, 10:00 AM (Showroom - Screen 3); Monday, June 15, 10:30 AM (Showroom - Screen 3)

Iran

Past Future Continuous

Directors: Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani
Production: Iran, Italy, Norway
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Youth Jury Award, Memories

Story: After years of living in exile from Iran, Maryam installs CCTV cameras in her family’s Tehran home and creates a lifeline to the parents she left behind.

Screenings: Wednesday, June 10, 2:30 PM (Showroom - Screen 2); Friday, June 12, 10:15 AM (The Light - Screen 9)

Blind, into the eye

Directors: Mehrad Sepahnia, Atefeh Kheirabadi
Production: Germany, Iran
Premiere status: UK Premiere
Section: Shorts: Acts of Witness

Story: Two Iranian filmmakers in exile piece together the story of a brutal and deliberate act: the systematic targeting of protesters’ eyes during Iran’s 2022 protests.

Screenings: Wednesday, June 10, 4:30 PM (Showroom - Screen 3); Thursday, June 11, 6:30 PM (Curzon - Screen 2)

Algeria And Iraq

Magma

Director: Mia Bendrimia
Production: France, Algeria, Qatar
Premiere status: World Premiere
Section: International First Feature Competition

Story: Searching for answers about her Algerian family’s ties to both sides of the Independence war, a filmmaker uncovers a tangle of contradicting buried histories.

Screenings: Friday, June 12, 6:15 PM (Showroom - Screen 2); Saturday, June 13, 12:45 PM (The Light - Screen 6)

How to Feed a Dictator

Director: Andrew Neel
Production: USA, Chile, Norway, Uganda, Kenya, Iraq, Cambodia
Premiere status: International Premiere
Section: Memories

Story: This film tells the story of five brutal regimes, from Iraq to North Korea, through the eyes of the personal chefs who served them.

Screenings: Wednesday, June 10, 1:00 PM (Showroom - Screen 4); Saturday, June 13, 9:00 PM (Showroom - Screen 3); Monday, June 15, 6:00 PM (Showroom - Screen 2)

---

Programme And Tickets

• Official programme: https://www.sheffdocfest.com/festival/2026/explore

• Festival information: https://www.sheffdocfest.com/docfest-2026

• Tickets: https://tickets.sheffdocfest.com/booking-information

For more updates on cinema and arts from the Middle East, follow me here.