Issue Editor: Blake Atwood (ba71@aub.edu.lb)
For the better part of a century, international film festivals have been essential to the global circulation of Middle Eastern cinema. Entanglements between festivals and cinema from the region date back to at least 1946, when the Egyptian film Dunia (dir. Mohammad Karim, 1946) screened at the first full edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, films from the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey have been mainstays on the festival circuit, premiering and screening at the Big Five (Berlin, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, and Venice), as well as smaller festivals around the world. The Middle Eastern films that make it onto the global festival circuit benefit from visibility, recognition, and potentially lucrative international distribution deals, all of which allow for wider circulation, greater prestige, and deeper audience engagement. For filmmakers coming from small markets such as Lebanon, festivals are essential to overcoming limited financial resources (Mouawad, 2020); for filmmakers working within tightly regulated industries, like in Iran, festivals offer an opportunity to exhibit films that might not otherwise receive domestic screening permits (Farahmand, 2002); and for filmmakers working under occupation, like those of Palestine, festivals offer a unique chance for national recognition, which is not possible under normative geopolitical institutions (Cable, 2025).
Yet, with these opportunities come foreclosures, too. A rich body of critical scholarship (e.g., de Valck, 2007; Wong, 2011) has shown that international film festivals, because they operate at the nexus of commerce, cinephilia, and politics, constrain the circulation of global cinema as much as they enable it. From encouraging certain styles to rewarding select filmmakers to capitalizing on liberal multiculturalism, international film festivals ultimately determine what is allowed to circulate globally in the first place. As crucial nodes in a vast, profit-driven network of formal distribution, festivals function as important gatekeepers that allow the passage of only a small number of films, while denying that of many others. Scholars have been especially attentive to the uneven power dynamics between Global North festivals and Global South cinemas (e.g., Falicov, 2010; Kim, Iordanova, and Berry, 2015). Such power dynamics enact what some have described as a neocolonial relationship in which funding schemes and systems of recognition insist on a homogenized aesthetic at the service of Western festivals and their audiences (Schoonover and Galt, 2016). While this is an important critique, more recent work (e.g., Barker 2024) has also advocated looking beyond a neocolonial framework to understand the relationship between Global North festivals and Global South cinemas through the lens of collaboration, co-production, and opportunity.
This special issue of Regards extends these critical debates by thinking through various dimensions of the relationship between film festivals and Middle Eastern cinema. In doing so, it also seeks to consolidate the growing research on the topic. This call for papers comes at a time as the festival scene transforms tremendously in the region, especially with the proliferation of local festivals across the Arab world, Iran, and Turkey. Notably, the rise of large festivals such as the Red Sea International Film Festival complicate easy distinctions between Global North and the Global South, and also invite us as critical scholars to reflect on the role of festivals in national branding efforts, as well as in the regional flow of culture, capital, and prestige. Studying the significance of film festivals to Middle Eastern cinema means much more than tracking the movement of films through European and North American festivals; it also requires careful attention to the role of local festivals in circulating global cinema, building audiences, encouraging film cultures, and contributing to political debates. With this shifting landscape in mind, Regards invites article manuscripts on the following topics, or on any other topic related to the larger theme of "Film Festivals and Middle Eastern Cinemas":
- Histories of specific film festivals in the region
- Relationship between festivals and local film industries
- Issues related to the labor and political economy (e.g., neoliberalism/globalization) of film festivals
- The aesthetics and styles of Middle Eastern "festival" films
- The role of festivals in building political solidarity and enacting activist politics
- Festival audiences, reception, and cinephilia in the region
- The place of Middle Eastern cinema in international festival programming, curation, and outreach
- The role of festivals as producers, funders, and educators, and the impact on local filmmaking practices
- The significance of film festivals in shaping the study of film history and theory in the region
Authors wishing to submit a proposal (in French, English, or Arabic) are invited to do so before June 20, 2026, through either of the following channels:
- By email: regards@usj.edu.lb
- Via the Digital Commons platform: Submit an article
Please provide the following:
- An abstract of the article (approximately 500 words)
- 5 to 10 keywords
- A brief indicative bibliography
- A short academic biographical note (approximately 100 words)
Abstracts will be reviewed by the editorial board, and authors will receive a response before June 30, 2026. The deadline for submitting the full article (approximately 7,000 words) is September 1, 2026.
- Barker, T. (2024). Reshaping production practices: European film festivals, new Indonesian cinema, and the creative producer. New Review of Film and Television 22(1), 556-576.
- Baroody, M. & Kozberg, K. (2021). The politics of collective programming and the virtual Arab film festival. Framework: The journal of cinema and media 62(2), 274-297.
- Cable, U. (2025). Mainstreaming Palestine: Cinematic activism and solidarity politics in the United States. University of Minnesota Press.
- de Valck, M. (2007). Film festivals: From European geopolitics to global cinephilia. Amsterdam University Press.
- Falicov, T. (2010). Migrating from south to north: The role of film festivals in funding and shaping global south film and video. In G. Elmer, C.H. Davis, J. Marchessault, and J. McCullough (Eds.) Locating migrating media. (pp. 3-21). Lexington Books.
- Farahmand, A. (2002). Perspectives on recent (international acclaim for) Iranian cinema. In R. Tapper (Ed.) New Iranian cinema: Politics, representation, and identity. (pp. 86-108). I.B. Tauris.
- Kim, D., Iordanova, D. & Berry, C. (2015). The Busan international film festival in crisis or, what should a film festival be? Film Quarterly 69(1), 80-89.
- Mouawad, W. (2020). Lebanese cinema and the French co-production system: The postcard strategy. In T. Ginsberg and C. Lippard (Eds.). Cinema of the Arab world: Contemporary directions in theory and practice. (pp. 71-86). Springer International Publishing.
- Saglier, V. (2014). Unstable and sustainable: The film festival institution and the case of the Franco-Arab Film Festival in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Transnational Cinemas 5(1), 41-56.
- Van de Peer, S. (2021). Arab documentary landscapes: Transnational flow of solidarity at festivals. In V. Shafik (Ed.) Documentary filmmaking in the Middle East and North Africa. (pp. 153-176). American University in Cairo Press.
- Wong, C.H. (2011). Film festivals: Culture, people, and power on the global screen. Rutgers University Press.