Official Awards & Jury Motivations
Al Ard Film Festival XXII, one of the most famous European film festivals about Palestine, proudly presents the winners of this year’s edition. The Jury recognized works that powerfully explore memory, resistance, belonging, and the enduring connection between people and land.
Best Non-Documentary Short Film
Khaled and Nema
Director: Sohail Dahdal
Jury Motivation
In a Bedouin village threatened by Israeli bulldozers, young Khaled, accompanied by his little goat, gathers the threads of his community’s memory in order to weave together the fabric of an ancient Resistance and renew it in the present. For having succeeded in instilling a thread of hope into a story about the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, and for showing how the preservation of collective memory can become a stronghold against attempts to erase the present and the future.
Best Short Documentary
What the Sand Remembers
Director: Mahmoud Mohmed Abu Ghalwa
Jury Motivation
For a young man from Gaza, a hill of sand becomes an intimate space of memories of family members’ shattered lives. The director’s camera accompanies, with several shots from below, a tragic tale of a sacred bond with his home-sand, silent witness and soul of regeneration.
Best Feature Documentary
Aisha’s Story
Directors: Elizabeth Vibert & Chen Wang
Jury Motivation
A woman’s kitchen turns into a living archive of herbs, seeds, colors, and stories.
With the help of her hand mill, which survived the Nakba, she turns recipes into lineage.
In this film, we are invited to gather at her table and discover the magic of eating from the same plate, feeling both the ache and joy of longing and belonging to something absent, yet profoundly present.
Audience Award
The Mission
Directors: Mike Lerner & Gaza Collective
Special Mentions
Special Mention – Feature Documentary
Director: Anas Zawahri
Special Mention – Short Documentary
Director: Abdullah Harun Ilhan
Special Mention – Non-Documentary Film
Director: Maria Saade
This year’s edition brought together voices from across the globe. From the occupied West Bank and Gaza to refugee communities in Jordan, and from Palestinian poetic resistance to Bedouin memories of resistance. Through documentary and non-documentary storytelling alike, these films remind us of cinema’s power to preserve history, rekindle hope, and confront attempts to erase the past and future.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the filmmakers, jurors, partners, and audiences who participated in this edition. Your passion and commitment continue to make Al Ard Film Festival a vital space for cinematic resistance and cultural exchange.
See you at the next edition.