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Global support for Palestine’s causes is growing, including Hollywood, where thousands of film workers have joined a commitment to boycott Israel’s film groups deemed complicit in the war in the Gaza Strip, and high-profile celebrities are backing films that focus on the Palestinian experience.

Yet, Palestinian movies still struggle to secure distribution and achieve visibility – even after a significant Academy Awards win last year. To showcase the Palestinian rich tradition of cinema, we asked prominent Palestinian film-makers and artists to discuss their top Palestinian-made films.

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

Director Cherien Dabis’s movie All That’s Left of You, which premiered recently at Sundance, is a unique film, bold and memorable. By telling the narrative of a single Palestinian clan, from its roots in pre-1948 Jaffa through generations of exile, it does not just tell a tale – it celebrates a heritage.

The cinematography are rich and immersive. Every shot feels intentional, every frame a memory – the orange groves of Jaffa, the roads of Nablus, the alienation of displacement. The acting are unforgettable, showcasing the director’s remarkable range together with multiple generations of the Bakris – the group of performers most synonymous with Palestinian film. They are complex, subtle and deeply real.

What’s most impressive is how smoothly the movie shifts between different eras without ever losing its emotional throughline. Each decade of the Palestinian people’s story is depicted with stunning detail, both visually and emotionally. The filmmaking is masterful in that way, leading you through time with clarity and care.

In the final moments, I was moved to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the past, it’s about the invisible ways it shapes who we are. It’s a film that lingers – not because of drama, but because of truth.

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

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

A shades-wearing Palestinian female boldly struts through a security post. Israeli soldiers watch, guns raised, confused. Her beauty disarms them and brings the guard tower to collapse. It’s an memorable scene from director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has remained in my mind ever since I first saw the movie. I was a second-year graduate cinema student at a university when it opened in the United States in the early 2000s. I remember being stunned by its impact, its defiance, and its pure audacity.

At a time when most Palestinian cinema leaned toward the solemn or tragic, the director carved a new path. Through satire, straight-faced performance, and almost silent observation, he captured the surreal absurdity of life under occupation. Portraying the movie’s silent main character himself, he placed his own perspective at the core of the story. That decision felt radical. His presence 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 grounded in the divided existence of Palestinian identity. The filmmaker transforms separation, exile and defiance into something resembling poetry. The outcome is touching, dreamlike, sometimes funny and consistently painfully honest.

There was nothing similar to it in Palestinian cinema at the period. It remains unique. It remains, for me, the most innovative and creative Palestinian film ever created.

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

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

In my view, a great movie needs to do two aspects. It needs to provide an journey that’s new, emotional and smart. It needs to offer me an element I’ve been lacking – a perspective that challenges my views, a way to consider topics beyond my own life, a view to a different time and location. Simply put, I need to feel enlightened, in spirit and intellectually.

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

The film To a Land Unknown, which was launched last year, is exactly this kind of film. Made by director Mahdi Fleifel, it is a story about a pair of Palestinian friends looking for better lives as displaced persons in Greece.

To a Land Unknown allowed me to experience what it’s like to be a at-risk migrant, in a strange country, where all factors acts against your attempts to escape the slum. It demonstrated me that in some cases, even when conditions outside your influence conspire against you, you personally can nonetheless become your own biggest obstacle. And its dance 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 spilling a single ounce of blood.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian Dutch director, screenwriter and twice Academy Award contender for his acclaimed works.

‘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 narrative of Palestinian people in the village of Beit Sahour, a village near the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank, during the first intifada of the late 1980s. It documents their attempt to {