The 19th edition of Al Ard Film Festival in Cagliari will take place from February 21st to 25th, 2023.

After a long and difficult selection process, due to the high quality of the submissions, we are pleased to announce the following films have been selected as the line-up for this year’s festival:

• Telling My Son’s Land directed by Ilaria Jovine and Roberto Mariotti (Italy, 2021)
• Bantustan directed by Mohammad Mansour (Palestine, 2021)
• Search directed by Alaa Dayeh (Palestine, 2022)
• The Pandemic directed by Kassem Istanbouli (Lebanon, 2021)
• Waiting for Farajallah directed by Nidal Badarny (Palestine, 2020)
• The Silent Protest: 1929 Jerusalem directed by Mahasen Nasser-Eldin (Palestine, 2023)
• Yalla directed by Carlo D’Ursi (Spain, 2021)
• Head Count directed by Akram Alwaara (Palestine, 2023)
• Warsha directed by Dania Bdeir (France, Lebanon, 2022)
• 3 Logical Exits directed by Mahdi Fleifel (Denmark, United Kingdom, Lebanon, 2020)
• Ethbet! directed by Matteo Ferrarini (Italy, France, Belgium, 2021)
• The War to Come directed by Marco Pasquini (Italy, 2021)
• The People’s Patriarch directed by Mohammed Alatar (Palestine, 2021)
• Last May in Palestine directed by Rabeea Eid (United Kingdom, Palestine, 2022)
• Siri Miri directed by Luay Awwad (Palestine, 2021)
• By the Sea directed by Wisam Al Jafari (Palestine, 2019)
• Cigarette directed by Lama Naamneh (Palestine, 2021)
• Eulogy for the Dead Sea directed by Polina Teif and co-written by Serene Husni (Canada, 2022)
• Not Just Your Picture – The Story of the Kilani Family directed by Anne Paq and Dror Dayan (Germany, Qatar, 2019)
• Palestine 87 directed by Bilal Alkhatib (Palestine, 2022)
• 4000 Voices directed by Sajjad Kwaish (Iraq, 2020)
• Sulla Loro Pelle directed by Marika Ikonomu, Alessandro Leone, and Simone Manda (Italy, 2022)
• Women Hold Up Half the Sky – Tunisia directed by Mariam Shahin and George Azar (Jordan, Tunisia, Lebanon, 2022)
• Toxic Hope directed by Salim Saab (Lebanon, 2022)
• Camp Stories directed by Wafiq Abdulghani (Lebanon, 2022)
• The Gaza Monologues; Ten Years and the Dream Continues… directed by Iman Aoun and Yousef Nateel (Palestine, 2021)
• Behind the Fence directed by Tamara Abu Laban (Palestine, 2021)
• I Never Survived directed by Joud Qablawi (Jordan, 2021)
• Memories of Al Yarmook directed by Sophie Welsh (Netherlands, Germany, 2022)
• The Story Behind Al Quds Ramadan Cannon directed by Sahera Dirbas and Shady Giorgio (Palestine, 2022)
• Erasmus in Gaza directed by Chiara Avesani and Matteo Delbò (Italy, Spain, 2022)

We are confident that our audience will greatly enjoy this selection of films, as our organisation’s selection board carefully chose them among a large number of submissions.

As this year the selection process was highly competitive, more than ever before, we would like to express our sincere thanks to all the candidates and wish the best of luck to those who were not selected for the final phase.

For those who have made it this far, they will be competing for seven different prizes, including:

1- Best Documentary Film: € 1500,00

2- Best Emerging Filmmaker: € 1000,00

3- Best Film on Palestine: € 1000,00

4- Best Short Documentary: € 500,00

5- Best Short Fiction Film: € 500,00

6- Audience Award: € 1000,00

7- Sardegna-Palestina Award (In memory of Ghassan Kanafani): € 500,00

We hope you are as excited as we are for this upcoming edition of Al Ard Film Festival and, if you don’t know us yet, we invite you to check the previous editions of the Festival at the dedicated page of our website.

As we approach the event, we will be providing regular updates on the films (there will be more, out of competition), special guests, and events that will be taking place.

Keep an eye out for more information and we look forward to seeing you at the festival!