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Global support for Palestinian rights is increasing, including the film industry, where numerous of film workers have signed a pledge to avoid Israel’s film groups deemed complicit in the war in the Gaza Strip, and well-known celebrities are backing movies that center the Palestinian people’s experience.

Yet, Palestinian-produced movies still face challenges to secure distribution and achieve exposure – even after a major Academy Awards victory last year. To showcase the Palestinian vibrant heritage of film-making, we asked leading Palestinian directors and entertainers to share their favorite Palestinian-made movies.

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

Cherien Dabis’s film All That’s Left of You, which debuted recently at Sundance, is a unique cinematic work, bold and unforgettable. By telling the story of a one Palestinian family, from its origins in pre-Nakba the city of Jaffa through decades of exile, it does not just tell a tale – it honors a legacy.

The visuals are rich and transportive. Every shot feels purposeful, every frame a memory – the citrus orchards of Jaffa, the streets of Nablus, the alienation of displacement. The performances are powerful, showcasing the director’s remarkable versatility alongside multiple generations of the Bakri family – the family of performers most associated with Palestinian film. They are layered, subtle and deeply real.

The most striking aspect is how seamlessly the film moves between different eras without ever breaking its narrative thread. Each decade of the Palestinian story is brought to life with stunning detail, both in imagery and emotionally. The filmmaking is masterful in that regard, leading you through time 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 unseen manners it influences who we are. It’s a movie that lingers – not because of spectacle, but because of honesty.

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

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

A sunglasses-clad Palestinian woman boldly struts through a checkpoint. Israeli troops look on, weapons pointed, baffled. Her presence subdues them and causes the watchtower to collapse. It’s an memorable moment from Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has remained in my mind 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 the early 2000s. I recall being amazed by its power, its resistance, and its sheer audacity.

During an era when the majority of Palestinian cinema tended to be the solemn or sad, the director created a new path. Through satire, deadpan performance, and near-silent storytelling, he captured the surreal ridiculousness of life under military control. Portraying the film’s mute protagonist personally, he placed his own perspective at the core of the story. That choice felt radical. His presence was calm and understated, which only magnified the stress all around him.

Divine Intervention is both deeply personal and highly political. Its imagery is global, yet grounded in the fractured existence of Palestinian identity. The filmmaker turns separation, exile and resistance into something approaching art. The result is poignant, dreamlike, at times hilarious and consistently deeply honest.

There was nothing similar to it in Palestinian cinema at the period. It remains unique. It continues to be, for me, the most wildly original and creative Palestinian-made movie ever made.

• Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian-American filmmaker, writer, producer and actor, whose latest film is a selected entry for the Oscars.

‘Palestine Has Gained a Talent’: Hany Abu Assad on To a Land Unknown

In my view, a great movie 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 perspective that contradicts my belief system, a method to think about topics beyond my own world, a view to a distinct time and place. In short, I need to feel enriched, emotionally and in mind.

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

The movie To a Land Unknown, which was launched last year, is precisely this type of film. Created by Mahdi Fleifel, it is a tale about two Palestinian friends looking for better lives as refugees in Greece.

To a Land Unknown allowed me to experience what it’s like to be a vulnerable migrant, in a foreign land, where all factors acts in opposition to your attempts to escape the ghetto. It showed me that in some cases, although conditions beyond your control work against you, you yourself can still turn into your own biggest obstacle. And its interplay between story and cinematic style astonished me in its craft.

In To a Land Unknown, Palestine has found a talent that will serve its cause without spilling a single ounce of blood.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian-Dutch filmmaker, writer and two-time Oscar contender for his acclaimed films.

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

Among my most loved Palestinian movies is The Wanted 18. It recounts the story of Palestinian people in the village of Beit Sahour, a village near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, during the first intifada of the late 1980s. It records their effort to {