Last year, many stood with us so that Palestinian cinema and films about Palestine could remain present and protected. This year, the Palestine Film Institute returns to Cannes with a deeper ambition: to transform survival into structure. Our 2026 program focuses on institutional stability and solidarity, asking what it means to build structures that allow artists and filmmakers to work with dignity, continuity, and care. Across five days, the Palestine Pavilion is a meeting ground for celebrating creativity, for strategizing, ethical refusal, remembrance  and cross-regional alliance, with a focus on advancing projects, funding reform, expanding market access, and distribution innovation. From Palestine-centred industry initiatives and international co-production, to solidarity events and celebrating the life of a Palestinian cinema icon, the program showcases  culture as infrastructure. 

We are currently witnessing the reshaping of the  world in real time. From Gaza to Sudan, the Congo to Lebanon, and South Africa to Indigenous peoples across the Americas and the Arctic, communities are rejecting old hierarchies and demanding a future rooted in justice and respect for our interdependence. Together with allied partners, we are building an ecosystem where every part strengthens the whole: the Platform that makes Palestinian films visible, teachable, and findable; the Hub that turns festival presence into productive collaborations; Archives & Research that safeguard memory against erasure; and the Palestine Film Fund that stabilizes production and nurtures new work. This program reflects a simple conviction: visibility must lead to viability, solidarity must become practice, and care must be structural. The Palestine Pavilion at Festival du Cannes is not only a place to gather, it is a place to build the future.

Palestine Pavilion Events