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Global support for Palestinian rights is increasing, including Hollywood, where thousands of industry professionals have signed a pledge to boycott Israeli cinema organizations considered involved in the war in the Gaza Strip, and high-profile stars are supporting films that focus on the Palestinian people’s lived reality.

However, Palestinian-produced films still face challenges to obtain release and achieve exposure – despite a major Academy Awards victory recently. To highlight Palestine’s rich tradition of cinema, we asked prominent Palestinian film-makers and entertainers to share their top Palestinian movies.

‘It Brought Me to Tears’: Mo Amer Reflects on All That’s Left Of You

Cherien Dabis’s film All That’s Left of You, which debuted recently at the Sundance Film Festival, is a rare cinematic work, bold and unforgettable. By telling the narrative of a single Palestinian family, from its roots in pre-1948 the city of Jaffa through decades of displacement, it does not just tell a tale – it celebrates a heritage.

The cinematography are rich and immersive. Each scene feels purposeful, each image a recollection – the orange groves of Jaffa, the streets of Nablus, the isolation of displacement. The performances are unforgettable, showcasing Dabis’s remarkable range together with multiple generations of the Bakris – the family of actors most synonymous with Palestinian cinema. They are layered, subtle and deeply real.

The most striking aspect is how seamlessly the film shifts between time periods without ever breaking its emotional throughline. Every period of the Palestinian history is depicted with stunning precision, both in imagery and in feeling. The filmmaking is skillful in that regard, guiding you through time with precision and care.

In the final moments, I was brought to tears. All That’s Left of You isn’t just about the history, it’s about the invisible manners it influences who we are. It’s a movie that lingers – not because of spectacle, but because of honesty.

• Mo Amer is a Palestinian-American actor and comic and the creator of a popular Netflix show.

‘The Most Wildly Original Palestinian Film Ever Made’: Cherien Dabis on Divine Intervention

A shades-wearing Palestinian woman defiantly struts through a checkpoint. Israel’s soldiers look on, guns pointed, confused. Her presence subdues them and brings the guard tower to collapse. It’s an memorable moment from director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention that has stayed with me ever since I first saw the film. I was a second-year graduate film student at Columbia University when it opened in the United States in 2003. I remember being stunned by its impact, its resistance, and its pure boldness.

At a time when the majority of Palestinian cinema tended to be the serious or tragic, Suleiman carved a new path. Through dark humor, straight-faced performance, and almost silent storytelling, he portrayed the bizarre absurdity of life under military control. Playing the movie’s silent main character personally, he placed his own gaze at the heart of the narrative. That choice felt radical. His performance was composed and restrained, which only magnified the stress all around him.

Divine Intervention is both intimately personal and politically charged. Its imagery is global, yet grounded in the fractured reality of Palestinian self. The filmmaker turns separation, displacement and resistance into something resembling poetry. The result is touching, dreamlike, sometimes funny and always deeply truthful.

There was nothing similar to it in Palestinian film at the period. It remains unique. It continues to be, for me, the most wildly original and creative Palestinian movie ever created.

• Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American director, writer, film producer and actress, whose latest film is an official submission for the Academy Awards.

‘Palestine Has Gained a Talent’: Hany Abu Assad on To a Land Unknown

For me, a great film needs to do two things. It needs to deliver an journey that’s new, emotional and smart. It needs to give me something I’ve been lacking – a perspective that contradicts my belief system, a method to consider issues beyond my own life, a window to a different era and place. In short, I need to feel enriched, emotionally and in mind.

Additionally, it needs to move me with its talent. A talent that is not focused seeking approval but is employed to reveal to an idea deeper.

The movie To a Land Unknown, which was released recently, is precisely this kind of movie. Made by Mahdi Fleifel, it is a tale about a pair of Palestinian friends searching for improved futures as displaced persons in Greece.

To a Land Unknown made me feel what it’s like to be a at-risk migrant, in a foreign land, where everything works in opposition to your attempts to escape the slum. It demonstrated me that in certain situations, even when conditions beyond your control work against you, you personally can nonetheless become your own biggest obstacle. And its interplay between story and cinematic style astonished me in its craft.

In To a Land Unknown, the Palestinian cause has found a gifted artist that will serve its cause without shedding a one drop of blood.

• Hany Abu-Assad is a Palestinian-Dutch filmmaker, screenwriter and twice Academy Award contender for his celebrated films.

‘Even Livestock Are Seen as a Danger’: Basel Adra on The Wanted 18

One of my favorite Palestinian movies is The Wanted 18. It tells the story of Palestinians in Beit Sahour, a town near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, during the initial uprising of the late 1980s. It records their attempt to {