Venice 2026 Brings MENA Voices Across Its Official Lineup
Venice, 2-12 September 2026 | Films linked to Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Georgia and the wider region appear across Competition, Orizzonti, Venezia Spotlight and Venice Open.
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The 83rd Venice International Film Festival brings a broad regional presence to the Lido this September, with films connected to Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraqi Kurdistan and Georgia appearing across the main Competition, Orizzonti, Venezia Spotlight and Venice Open.
The lineup includes two Iranian features, Palestinian films in Spotlight and Venice Open, a Lebanese feature and short, Halkawt Mustafa’s Kurdish story set around Mosul, and Levan Koguashvili’s Georgian drama Guria. Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May el-Toukhy and Israeli director Amos Gitai also appear in the programme.
Two Films With Iranian Directors
Ali Asgari will compete for the Golden Lion with Kami Nour (A Bit of Light), an 87-minute co-production between Iran, Switzerland, Italy, Canada and Türkiye.
The film centres on an Iranian doctor whose medical practice is shut down after his arrest. Having lost faith in his future, he decides to end his life. A final day spent with his family begins to disturb the certainty of that decision.
This is Asgari’s first film in Venice’s main competition. He previously presented Disappearance at the festival in 2017, while Divine Comedy screened in Orizzonti last year. Salaud Morisset is handling worldwide sales for the new film.
Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Gharaei returns with Moragheb (Falling House), which will premiere in Orizzonti.
The 124-minute Iran-US-Germany production is set around a family living on the outskirts of Tehran, where a redevelopment project threatens their home. Rashid, a prison guard facing accusations of corruption, also discovers that his eldest daughter Ensi is preparing to leave Iran for a modelling career.
As pressure grows both inside and outside the house, Mohsen Gharaei brings together questions of authority, family and emigration. Falling House is his latest feature after Blockage, which won the New Currents Award at Busan in 2017. Paradise City Sales represents international sales.
Palestine, Lebanon and Georgia in Venezia Spotlight
Palestinian filmmaker Muayad Alayan will present Hiwar ma’ albahr (Conversation With The Sea) in Venezia Spotlight.
Kamal, a 60-year-old Palestinian man in Jerusalem, is ordered by an Israeli court to pay a social security debt attributed to his son Wael. The problem is that Kamal believes Wael drowned in the Red Sea decades earlier. When no official record of his death can be found, he begins searching for what happened.
The 112-minute film is a co-production between Palestine, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Lebanese filmmaker Rami Kodeih joins the same section with Furies, set against Lebanon’s banking crisis.
Two women, unable to access their own savings, plan an overnight bank robbery to recover the money they need for a life-saving operation. The Lebanon-Brazil production runs 133 minutes.
Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili is also in Venezia Spotlight with Guria.
The 118-minute film is set in a Georgian village, where a widowed hazelnut farmer is struggling with poverty, power cuts and the search for a fair price for his harvest, while also hoping for another chance at love.
Guria is a co-production between Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Norway and Saudi Arabia.
Gaza and a Kurdish Story Outside Competition
Ahmed Hassouna’s Al Mowaten Osama (Citizen Osama) will screen in Venice Open - Out of Competition.
Filmed in northern Gaza, the 68-minute France-Palestine documentary stays close to Osama, a former artistic photographer who has become a war documentarian. As he records the destruction around him, he is also trying to protect his wife and newborn child.
Halkawt Mustafa’s No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman is also part of Venice Open.
Vyan, a Kurdish sniper, returns to Mosul after learning that her younger sister, believed missing since the 2014 ISIS assault, may still be alive. The journey forces her back into a city marked by war and into memories she has spent years trying to suppress.
The 110-minute film is a co-production between Norway, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Sweden.
Lebanon and Iran in the Orizzonti Shorts
The regional presence also extends to the Orizzonti short-film competition.
Lebanese-Moroccan filmmaker Shaden Safieddine Tazi is in the section with Quelques instants de bonheur (A Few Moments of Happiness). The 18-minute documentary follows a young Lebanese filmmaker in Paris watching the war in Lebanon unfold through her phone, using screen recordings, family voices and silence to record the distance between her life abroad and events at home.
Iranian-born animator Amir Houshang Moein will also present the 10-minute French production Bleu au loin (Distant Blue).
Amos Gitai Returns With The Road to Jericho
Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai will present The Road to Jericho in the non-fiction part of Venice Open - Out of Competition.
The 90-minute France-UK-Israel documentary travels from Jerusalem towards Jericho, connecting the geography of the road with the political history of the area.
Along the route, Gitai stops at Khan al-Ahmar, the Bedouin community east of Jerusalem that has faced threats of demolition. The journey gives the film a geographical frame for looking at land, memory and the unresolved political history around Jerusalem, Jericho and the West Bank.
May el-Toukhy in the Golden Lion Competition
Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May el-Toukhy will compete for the Golden Lion with Kvinde Ukendt (Woman Unknown).
Set in Denmark after the Second World War, the film centres on Marie, a young housemaid preparing to marry her wealthy, older employer, while a secret from the war years threatens her new position.
The 124-minute film is produced by Denmark, Sweden and Latvia. Its connection to this regional overview comes through el-Toukhy’s Egyptian background rather than the film’s setting or production. Her previous feature, Queen of Hearts, won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance in 2019.
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival takes place on the Lido from 2 to 12 September 2026.
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