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Global backing for Palestinian rights is increasing, including the film industry, where numerous of film workers have signed a pledge to avoid Israeli film groups considered involved in the war in the Gaza Strip, and well-known celebrities are backing films that center the Palestinian people’s lived reality.

However, Palestinian films continue to face challenges to obtain distribution and achieve visibility – despite a major Oscars victory last year. To showcase Palestine’s rich tradition of film-making, we invited prominent Palestinian directors and entertainers to discuss their favorite Palestinian films.

‘By the End, I Was Moved to Tears’: Mo Amer on All That’s Left Of You

Cherien Dabis’s movie All That’s Left of You, which debuted recently at the Sundance Film Festival, is a rare cinematic work, unflinching and unforgettable. By portraying the narrative of a single Palestinian family, from its roots in pre-1948 the city of Jaffa through generations of displacement, it does not just recount a tale – it honors a heritage.

The cinematography are vivid and transportive. Each scene feels purposeful, each image a memory – the orange groves of Jaffa, the streets of Nablus, the isolation of exile. The acting are unforgettable, highlighting the director’s remarkable versatility together with multiple generations of the Bakris – the family of actors most associated with Palestinian cinema. They are layered, restrained and deeply real.

The most striking aspect is how seamlessly the film moves between different eras without ever losing its narrative thread. Each decade of the Palestinian people’s story is brought to life with stunning detail, both in imagery and in feeling. The filmmaking is masterful in that way, guiding you through years with precision and sensitivity.

By the end, I was brought to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the past, it’s about the invisible manners it shapes who we are. It’s a film that stays with you – not because of spectacle, but because of truth.

• Mo Amer is a Palestinian American performer and comedian and the maker of a popular streaming series.

‘A Groundbreaking Masterpiece’: Cherien Dabis on Divine Intervention

A shades-wearing Palestinian woman boldly walks through a checkpoint. Israeli troops look on, weapons pointed, baffled. Her beauty disarms them and brings the guard tower to collapse. It’s an iconic moment from director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has stayed with me ever since I first saw the movie. I was a second-year postgraduate film student at a university when it premiered in the US in 2003. I recall being stunned by its power, its defiance, and its pure audacity.

At a time when the majority of Palestinian film leaned toward the solemn or sad, Suleiman created a new path. Through satire, deadpan acting, and near-silent storytelling, he captured the surreal ridiculousness of existence under occupation. Playing the film’s silent main character personally, he placed his own gaze at the core of the narrative. That decision felt revolutionary. His performance was composed and understated, which only magnified the tension all around him.

Divine Intervention is both intimately personal and highly political. Its visual language is universal, yet rooted in the divided existence of Palestinian self. Suleiman transforms disconnection, exile and resistance into something approaching poetry. The result is poignant, surreal, at times hilarious and consistently painfully honest.

There was nothing remotely like it in Palestinian cinema at the period. It remains unique. It continues to be, for me, the most wildly original and imaginative Palestinian film ever created.

• Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actress, whose most recent movie is an official entry for the Oscars.

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

For me, a great film needs to do two things. It needs to provide an journey that’s unfamiliar, emotional and intelligent. It needs to offer me an element I’ve been lacking – a point of view that contradicts my views, a method to think about issues outside my own life, a window to a different time and location. In short, I need to feel enlightened, in spirit and in mind.

Second, it needs to move me with its talent. A talent that is not busy trying to impress but is used to open my eyes to something deeper.

The film To a Land Unknown, which was launched recently, is precisely this type of movie. Made by director Mahdi Fleifel, it is a tale about a pair of Palestinian companions searching for improved futures as displaced persons in the country of Greece.

To a Land Unknown made me feel what it’s like to be a at-risk migrant, in a strange country, where everything acts in opposition to your attempts to escape the slum. It demonstrated me that in certain situations, even when conditions beyond your influence work against you, you yourself can nonetheless become your own worst enemy. And its interplay between story and visual form astonished me in its craft.

In To a Land Unknown, the Palestinian cause has found a talent that will support its mission without spilling a one drop of blood.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian Dutch filmmaker, writer and twice Oscar nominee for his celebrated works.

‘It Shows Israel Views Even Cows as a Threat’: Basel Adra on The Wanted 18

Among my favorite Palestinian films is The Wanted 18. It recounts the story of Palestinians in the village of Beit Sahour, a town near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, during the first intifada of the late 1980s. It records their attempt to {