Twin Cities Arab Film Festival Archives

2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Opening Night: The Stories

Wednesday, Sep 23rd

20th Arab Film Festival Opening Night Wednesday, September 23 at 7:00 PM Visiting filmmaker: Abu Bakr Shawky ABOUT THE FILM During the tense summer of 1967, as war looms over Egypt, aspiring concert pianist Ahmed begins a pen-pal correspondence with an Austrian woman named Elizabeth. Based on the actual meeting of director Abu Bakr Shawky’s […]

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Minnesota Made: Shorts and Fragments + Discussion

2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Minnesota Made: Shorts and Fragments + Discussion

Thursday, Sep 24th

20th Arab Film Festival Thursday, September 24 at 5:30 PM Minnesota Made: Shorts and Fragments presents films from local Arab, Muslim and SWANA artists working across artistic and visual media. This segment includes finished films, collaborations, and works-in-progress by image-makers from our local(ish) community. A short discussion with the filmmakers will follow the screening. ABOUT […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Outdoor Screening: Mystery Classic Film

Thursday, Sep 24th

20th Arab Film Festival Outdoor Screening: Mystery Classic Film under the 3rd Avenue bridge (across from The Main Cinema) Join us for a free outdoor screening of the mystery classic film. Want a hint? It’s a musical comedy starring Lebanese icon Fairuz and directed by seminal Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. RSVP here. This program is […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Who Killed Alex Odeh?

Friday, Sep 25th

20th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 25 at 1:00 PM ABOUT THE FILM Activist, teacher, and poet Alex Odeh was a leading voice in his community, advocating in the media for peace and justice through dialogue and respect for all people. In October 1985, he was assassinated by a tripwire bomb placed in his office. […]

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My Father and Qaddafi + Attempting to Remember My Father’s Face

2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

My Father and Qaddafi + Attempting to Remember My Father’s Face

Friday, Sep 25th

20th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 25 at 4:00 PM The feature documentary My Father and Qaddafi will be preceded by the short film Attempting to Remember My Father’s Face. ABOUT THE FILMS MY FATHER QADDAFI Dir. Jihan K • USA, Libya • 2025 • English, Arabic, French • 88 min When director Jihan was […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Hadi Moussally Retrospective

Friday, Sep 25th

20th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 25 at 7:00 PM Mizna presents a retrospective of Hadi Moussally’s short films, with the filmmaker in attendance. Hadi combines a multifaceted filmmaking approach with a very clear discourse on what it is to be gay and Arab, both in his country of origin and in his adopted countries. […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

The Arab

Friday, Sep 25th

20th Arab Film Festival Friday, September 25 at 9:00 PM ABOUT THE FILM Haroun is an old bachelor who has been living in Oran for several years. A retired civil servant, he leads a reclusive life until, in a bar, he meets Kamel, a journalist to whom he tells an incredible story dating back to […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Stories of Rupture: Shorts

Saturday, Sep 26th

20th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 26 at 12:30 PM We imagine time as a continuum—from past, through our present, to the future. Yet, ruptures continually disturb our real experiences of time. This selection of short films explores themes of rupture and separation through multiple lenses, manifesting in the various, connected forms of familial separation, […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

An Incomplete Calendar

Saturday, Sep 26th

20th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 26 at 2:40 PM Video introduction by director Sanaz Sohrabi ABOUT THE FILM Rhymes and Songs for OPEC, a vinyl record from 1980, is the starting point of this film. The album contains a special recording by the Central University of Venezuela’s concert choir to commemorate the twentieth anniversary […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Cotton Queen

Saturday, Sep 26th

20th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 26 at 4:30 PM Q&A with dir. Suzannah Mirghani, moderated by Safia Elhillo ABOUT THE FILM Set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, Cotton Queen follows teenage Nafisa as she stands at the crossroads of tradition, modernity, and survival. Guided by her grandmother, Al-Sit, whose stories and memories of […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Do You Love Me

Saturday, Sep 26th

20th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 26 at 7:00 PM Prerecorded Q&A with director Lana Daher. This film is presented with the support of Alliance Française. ABOUT THE FILM Do You Love Me is a personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Unidentified

Saturday, Sep 26th

20th Arab Film Festival Saturday, September 26 at 9:00 PM ABOUT THE FILM Award-winning writer-director Haifaa Al Mansour returns with a detective story that examines how society’s constraints on women complicate the concepts of victim and perpetrator—and how those complications redefine what justice looks like. When an unidentified young woman’s body is found abandoned in […]

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2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

El Sett

Sunday, Sep 27th

20th Arab Film Festival Sunday, September 27 at 11:00 AM ABOUT THE FILM A stirring opening sequence transports us backstage to Umm Kulthum’s historic 1967 concert at the Olympia in Paris. Fans had crossed oceans to see her. Hamed shifts back and forth in time, imagining key moments in Umm Kulthum’s trajectory as an artist […]

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Closing Day: With Hasan in Gaza at the Walker Cinema

2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Closing Day: With Hasan in Gaza at the Walker Cinema

Sunday, Sep 27th

20th Arab Film Festival Screening at Walker Cinema Sunday, September 27 at 3:00 PM at Walker Cinema Get Tickets Here This film is presented with the support of the Estate of Dr. Inaam Matar. ABOUT THE FILM In 2001, Kamal Aljafari set out with a MiniDV camera on a trip to Gaza in search of […]

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Closing Day: Bouchra at the Walker Cinema

2026

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Closing Day: Bouchra at the Walker Cinema

Sunday, Sep 27th

20th Arab Film Festival Closing Night Film Screening at Walker Cinema Sunday, September 27 at 7:00 PM at Walker Cinema Get Tickets Here This film contains depictions of sexual intimacy. ABOUT THE FILM Bouchra opens with a long-distance phone call between Aicha (voiced by artist Yto Barrada), living in Casablanca, and her daughter, Bouchra, living […]

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Twin Cities Arab Film Festival Archive

2025

Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Surprise Screening + Advanced Preview

Wednesday, Oct 1st

19th Arab Film Festival Surprise Screening + Advanced Preview Wednesday, October 1 at 7:00 PM Mizna is elated to present a special screening and advanced preview of a brand new feature film by an award–winning director! We would release the title, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise. Intrigued? Without giving too much away, we […]