Amid the ongoing struggle to preserve and sustain Palestinian narrative and cinematic continuity, the Palestine Film Institute (PFI) engages international platforms such as Sheffield DocFest as spaces for structured connection and collaboration. Through this Showcase, three Palestinian feature documentaries in progress are presented, offering filmmakers and producers the opportunity to engage directly with decision-makers and festival programmers. PFI’s role in this Showcase is to support the conditions through which these encounters can translate into meaningful outcomes, by advancing projects, fostering partnerships, and opening pathways for long-term production and circulation.

We extend our gratitude to those who choose to engage with and support these works, and welcome partners who are committed not only to the films themselves, but to the narratives and structures that allow them to endure.

Palestine Showcase at Sheffield DocFest 2026

Saturday, June 13, 10:00 - 11:00 
The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield City Centre

Presented with the Support of

Don’t Miss these Palestine Docs at Sheffield DocFest 2026

Palestine Events

The PFI Team

The PFI Showcase will take place on Saturday 13 June at 10:00 BST at the Creative Lounge, Workstation, Sheffield, and is open to accredited Sheffield DocFest delegates. The session will be live captioned.

Building on strong industry attendance in previous editions, the Showcase forms part of PFI’s wider work to develop, promote and preserve Palestinian cinema, and to create international opportunities for Palestinian filmmakers and producers.

The PFI’s various international showcases are a central pillar of the institute’s goal of promoting and developing Palestinian cinema. 

Mohamed Jabaly, head of the PFI’s Palestine Documentary Hub, says of the organisation’s mission:

"Palestinian stories can present our true complex realities beyond headlines and transcend imposed boundaries."

Filmmaker and Educator Saeed Taji Farouky, a member of the PFI, will be at Sheffield supporting the delegation and says

“cinema represents not only a fundamental part of Palestinian culture, but an irrepressible expression of resistance, resilience, and beauty during some of the darkest days in Palestinian history. Our delegation to Sheffield always has special resonance because of the city’s history of radical and popular mobilisation for justice and liberation. Sheffield is the perfect partner to build up the Palestinian film industry with us, to find opportunities for these phenomenal filmmakers on an international scale, and to showcase the incomparable talent of Palestinian artists.” 

Melanie Iredale, Director of Reclaim The Frame, the UK charity championing women & marginalised gender filmmakers, and a volunteer with the PFI supporting the delegation at DocFest, adds:

“Recent Palestinian film releases internationally have shown a clear and growing audience appetite for Palestinian stories, with audiences actively seeking out work that offers nuance, humanity and lived experience beyond the headlines. I’m excited by the opportunity this Showcase creates for international partners to connect with these projects at an early stage, and to support these filmmakers in bringing vital, urgent and deeply cinematic work to the audiences already waiting for it.”

Marion Schmidt, moderator of the PFI Showcase at Sheffield 2026.

Jurors Statement

First, we would like to express our sincere thanks for this valuable support for Palestinian cinema and its filmmakers, and for the high quality and remarkable diversity of the submitted projects. The evaluation process was both challenging and rewarding.

The challenge lay in the diversity of the projects—ranging from documentary to fiction—and in their varying stages, from development to production and post-production, in addition to the complexities involved in deciding how to position certain projects for participation in different festivals.

As for the rewarding aspect, it was reflected in discovering the emerging landscape of Palestinian cinema, getting to know a promising new generation of filmmakers, and witnessing the diversity of artistic visions and approaches among directors and writers, both within Palestine and abroad, including non-Palestinian filmmakers engaging with Palestinian life through cinema.

The strong harmony among the committee members, along with the diversity of their experiences and relationships to cinema, played an important role in reaching balanced decisions. The professional and responsible discussions also helped, at times, to reconsider certain viewpoints, leading to a shared sense of satisfaction with the outcomes and with supporting projects that truly deserve development and follow-up.

In conclusion, we hope that all these projects will come to fruition and find their way onto cinema screens around the world.

As a jury, we wish each project and all participants in the call the best for a successful completion and can't wait to greet the films at their premieres in the near future.