Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/25/2025
All Day

Add This to Your Calendar

Categories

Cost:
USD
Contact Person:

Email:

Website:
https://cinemayaat.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-arab-film-media-institute-begins-to-unveil-the-100-greatest-arab-films-of-all-time
Phone:

Organization:

Online

The Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) is proud to announce that on Tuesday, November 18th, it will start to unveil The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time, beginning with films ranked 100-81.

Based on the votes of hundreds of professional critics, academics, curators, and select filmmakers, The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time list (also known as AFMI100) will present a modern canon of the best fictional, feature-length films from the Arab world, and will be hosted on a new website by AFMI, Cinemayaat.com

Arab cinema has been consistently overlooked despite its rich history and breadth of form; The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time list will serve as a resource for all film lovers to discover the very best classic and contemporary films the region has to offer.

“Contemporary Arab auteurs are brimming with both talent and confidence, tackling challenging subject matters not yet explored in the region’s rich history. However, despite this undeniable cultural movement, Arab cinema remains widely underseen, and global recognition lags behind. It is time for this to change: Arab stories need to be told, heard, and shared, and Arab filmmakers and storytellers uplifted.” – Eman Ibrahim, Cinemayaat Editor-in-Chief

At the beginning of 2025, AFMI reached out to hundreds of professional critics, academics, curators, and select filmmakers from over 20 countries and asked them to vote for the greatest Arab films of all time, limiting their choice to Narrative Feature films (documentaries and short films were not eligible). Films had to be from the Arab world, the Arab diaspora, and/or depicting Arab narratives. The film could be in any language. Each voter could interpret “greatest films” however they preferred, as personal favorites, essential or milestone works, underrated gems, or a mix of all three.

The final results will be unveiled in a weekly countdown format beginning on Tuesday November 18, through the Cinemayaat website and AFMI’s official social media accounts. Each week, 20 films will be unveiled, culminating in the week of December 16th when the 20 Greatest Arab Films of All Time will be announced.

“The Arab Film and Media Institute was founded to amplify the voices of Arab storytellers and expand how the world sees our communities. The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time is more than a list, it’s a cultural milestone, one that honors nearly a century of cinematic art while inviting a global audience to discover, celebrate, reflect on, and be moved by the best of Arab Cinema. We are proud to offer this resource and to honor the legacy as well as the future of Arab Cinema.” – Serge Bakalian, Executive Director, Arab Film and Media Institute

The Countdown to The Greatest Arab Film of All Time

The films voted as The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time will be unveiled according to the following schedule:

• Tuesday November 18th: Films 100-81
• Tuesday Nov. 25th: Films 80-61
• Tuesday December 2nd: Films 60-41
• Tuesday Dec. 9th: Films 40-21
• Tuesday Dec. 16th: Films 20-11
• Thursday Dec. 18th: Films 10-1

People can follow the Arab Film and Media Institute on Instagram and visit Cinemayaat.com to learn about the films as they are announced.

About the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI)
The Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI) is the first organization of its kind outside the Arab world, a unique ecosystem to find, nurture and develop Arab film and media projects. It was rebranded from the Arab Film Festival in 2017 to fulfill its broader mandate to empower local Arab talent to tell their communities’ stories in their own voices. AFMI is built upon four programming pillars: Exhibitions, Education, Creators and Industry. For more information about AFMI, please visit arabfilminstitute.org

About the Arab Film Festival (AFF)
The flagship event of the Arab Film and Media Institute, the Arab Film Festival is the largest and longest running independent festival of its kind in North America. Launched in 1996, the festival’s mission is to present the best of contemporary films that illuminate the richness of Arab culture through authentic narratives and images, providing insight into the beauty and complexity of the Arab world. The 29th edition took place November 6 – 15, 2025:arabfilmfestival.org

About Cinemayaat
Cinemayaat, AFMI’s newest initiative, is an annual online magazine dedicated to growing the discourse and profile of classic and contemporary cinema from the Arab world through critical, personal and experimental essays. The first annual issue of Cinemayaat is The 100 Greatest Arab Films of All Time, showcasing the results of the AFMI100 critic’s poll, alongside original essays and commentary from professional film critics and writers. The list countdown will begin on November 18, 2025, discover it from: https://cinemayaat.com/