EXCLUSIVE: Aflamuna Connection has unveiled 18 feature projects for its 10th edition, including upcoming films from Cannes director Morad Mostafa and Abdelwahab Shawky.
The selection comprises 13 titles in development and five works-in-progress, spanning eight fiction films and 10 documentaries from Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Somalia, Morocco and Syria.
The fiction projects largely focus on intimate, character-driven stories, while the documentaries engage more directly with political realities, including war, displacement, identity and social change.
Egyptian filmmaker Mostafa, whose acclaimed debut Aisha Can’t Fly Away premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2025, will bring his second feature, Animals. Infused with horror and myth, the film follows a young man on the run haunted by a crime involving his twin brother. Mostafa was a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2023.
Songs From The City Of The Dead will mark the debut feature of Egyptian filmmaker Shawky, whose credits as an assistant director include Amjad Abu Alala’s You Will Die At Twenty, which won the Lion of the Future award at Venice in 2019. Shawky’s short The Last Miracle was the subject of a censorship battle in 2024 when it was pulled as the opening film of El Gouna hours before its screening. It premiered at Cairo International Film Festival the following year.
Also selected is Accept My Plea For Burial, a Somalia-Djibouti co-production directed by Mohammed Sheikh, marking the first Somali project to participate in Aflamuna Connection. It is set as Sheikh’s second feature following missing child drama Barni, which premiered at Red Sea International Film Festival in 2025.
“It’s always important for us to have strong representation from across the Arab world,” said Aflamuna Connection manager Myriam Sassine. “Some countries, such as Egypt and Lebanon, naturally submit a large number of projects every year, while others submit far fewer. So we always try to encourage filmmakers from less represented countries, such as Somalia.”
She added that supporting filmmakers like Sheikh also means helping them better understand how the industry works, raise financing, and connect with producers and international co-production networks.
The 10th edition will run online from June 24-26, featuring one-on-one meetings, consultancy sessions and masterclasses with more than 150 international industry professionals, including producers, sales agents, programmers and representatives from funds and film institutions.
Further selected titles include documentaries +477 Night by Gazan filmmaker Aisha Adly, offering an insider perspective on the ongoing war, and A City Without Doors - When Life Stirs by Syrian filmmaker Eyad Aljaroud, which follows residents navigating destruction and rebuilding their sense of place amid collapse and survival.
Palestinian feature The Hearse To The Final House Of Happiness by Wisam Al Jafari follows Lina, the daughter of a hearse driver, as she attempts to reach her sister before her wedding. The project was developed at the Doha Film Institute Hezayah Screenwriting Lab.
Sassine pointed to the growing difficulties facing Arab filmmakers across the region and said they faced increasing challenges due to instability, war and censorship. She added that cuts to Arab grants, distribution pre-sales and minimum guarantees are making it harder for filmmakers to sustain themselves financially, with many unable to spend long periods developing projects without secure returns.
“It’s about trying to support and encourage them, to push them to keep going,” she said.
Aflamuna Connection, formerly known as Beirut Cinema Platform, has operated online since 2021, a format Sassine said became necessary first because of Covid and later because of budget cuts and regional instability. “The online platform allows filmmakers to participate without concerns over visas and travel costs, while also enabling the initiative to invite international film professionals from across the world without travel restrictions,” said Sassine.
This year’s edition will host more than 150 industry guests, including representatives from International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Doha Film Institute, Film Independent, Toronto International Film Festival and Sheffield DocFest, alongside sales agents and producers from across Europe, North America and the Arab world.
Over ten editions, Aflamuna Connection has gradually established itself as a long-term development platform for Arab independent cinema. Sassine pointed to several films that have passed through the platform and gone on to achieve international visibility, including Mohamed Kordofani’s Sudanese drama Goodbye Julia, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2023; and The Brink Of Dreams, an Egyptian documentary by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir, which premiered at Cannes in 2024, where it won the L’Oeil d’or for best documentary.
The platform also continues its collaboration with Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival through Aflamuna x Cinemed Professional Encounters, where seven of the 18 selected projects will be pitched to European co-production partners.
Aflamuna Connection 2026 projects
In Development
A Tale Of A Feather And A Fish (Egy)
Dir. Ahmed El-Hawarey
A Touch Of Paradise (Tun)
Dir. Houcem Slouli
A Young Man In Trouble (Egy)
Dir. Ahmed Sobhy
Accept My Plea For Burial (Som-Djibouti)
Dir. Mohammed Sheikh
Animals (Egy)
Dir. Morad Mostafa
Disappeared (Pal)
Dir. Anas Zawahri
I Have Other Friends (Egy)
Dir. Yomna Khattab
Karama (Mor)
Dir. Fatym Layachi
Songs From The City Of The Dead (Egy)
Dir. Abdelwahab Shawky
The Hearse To The Final House Of Happiness (Pal)
Dir. Wisam Al Jafari
The Space I Carry (Leb)
Dirs. Josef Khallouf, Elise Pouchelet
To Whom It Concerns (Leb)
Dir. Elie Kamal
Twelve Fig Leaves (Leb)
Dir. Joëlle Abou Chabké
Works In Progress
A City Without Doors – When Life Stirs (Syr)
Dir. Eyad Aljaroud
Trip To My Body (Tun)
Dir. Bassem Ben Brahim
Confessions In Arabic (Leb)
Dir. Maria Ghafary
+477 Night (Pal)
Dir. Aisha Adly
Wilderness Of Dreams (Egy)
Dir. Mona Lotfy
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