These Are All the Arab Films Going to Cannes Film Festival in 2023

The world's top practitioners of the seventh art will congregate on the French Riviera during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. And just like every year, the fortnight gives many films from around the world a genuine platform for expression while also providing a chance to recognise Arab films that will be shown at the festival for the first time.

Held from May 16th to the 27th, the influence of the French film festival is irrefutably enormous. 

'Triangle of Sadness', for example, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture after winning the Palme d'Or winner the previous year at Cannes. In 2019, 'Parasite', which had a Cannes debut, became the first movie to win the Best Picture Academy Award in a language other than English.

Given that two Arab films from the list below are up for the Palme d'Or this year, it's not entirely unlikely that a filmmaker from our region may create history at the next Academy Awards.

1. Firebrand (Algeria)

Karim Aïnouz’s ‘FIREBRAND’ starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law is officially premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

A psychological horror set in the Tudor court with a focus on Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. pic.twitter.com/pW58XvnkoX

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) April 13, 2023

The historical drama 'Firebrand', starring Alicia Vikander and Jude Law and directed by the Algerian-Brazillian Karim Ainouz, will be shown in the official competition category. It is about the marriage of Catherine Parr and Henry VIII.

2. Four Daughters (Tunisia)

فخورة وسعيدة باختيار الفيلم التونسي الذي أشارك فيه #بنات_ألفة بالمسابقة الرسمية لمهرجان كان، أهم مسابقة في العالم! الفيلم اخراج كوثر بن هنية وانتاج حبيب عطية ونديم شيخ روحه. يوم جميل ومهم في تاريخ السينما العربية!♥️ pic.twitter.com/aRdhWobxcY

— Hend Sabry - هند صبري (@HendSabry) April 13, 2023

Kaouther Ben Hania, a Tunisian director and Oscar nominee for The Man Who Sold His Skin, debuts her new movie at Cannes in official competition with Wes Anderson and other filmmakers. In 'Four Daughters' a mother (played by A-lister Hend Sabri) learns that two of her four daughters have become radicalised. The film makes us wonder about the fundamental foundations of our civilizations as it explores themes of hope, revolt, violence, transmission, and sisterhood.  

3. Omar La Fraise (Algeria)

In the Midnight Screenings section, French-Algerian producer-director Elias Belkeddar will present 'Omar La Fraise', a movie that tells the tale of mobster Omar Zerrouki who flees France where he lived a life of crime for Algiers.

4. The Mother of All Lies (Morocco)

'The Mother of All Lies', a documentary on the deadly bread riots that took place in Asmae El-Moudir's impoverished Casablanca neighbourhood in 1981, will be shown in the Un Certain Regard category.

5. Goodbye Julia (Sudan)

Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani will show 'Goodbye Julia' in the Un Certain Regard category. The movie, which was directed by Mohamed Kordofani and produced by Amjad Abu Alala and Mohammed Alomda, is set just before South Sudan secedes from the north and tells the tale of a woman who is a former singer and bride from the north who seeks redemption for killing a man. 

6. Les Meutes (Morocco)

The Moroccan director Kamal Lazraq will screen his first film, 'Les Meutes', in the Un Certain Regard division. It stars Ayoub Elaid and Abdellatif Masstouri as a father-and-son team. It recounts the journey of father and son Hassan and Issam, who work minor jobs for the neighbourhood underworld while living day to day in the working-class Casablanca neighbourhoods until they are asked to abduct a man one evening.

7. The Nature of Love (Tunisia)

'The Nature of Love', directed by Canadian-Tunisian filmmaker Monia Chokri, is about a university professor whose marriage is uninteresting and who develops feelings for the construction worker her and her husband have hired to restore their house.