Prime Highlights
- Arab Women in the Arts showcase honors Lebanese filmmaker Danielle Arbid in its sixth edition.
- Arab Film and Media Institute spotlights growing global influence of Arab women filmmakers.
Key Facts
- Program features screenings of Arbid’s short, feature films across New York City venues, online.
- Showcase highlights rising Arab women directors including Cherien Dabis, Kaouther Ben Hania, Annemarie Jacir.
Background
The Arab Film and Media Institute ran the sixth Arab Women in the Arts showcase in New York City and online, honoring Lebanese filmmaker Danielle Arbid and pointing to the rise of Arab women in global cinema.
The Arab Film and Media Institute presents the event annually, honoring generations of Arab women who have shaped artistic expression, with this edition centered on Arbid’s exploration of war, memory, isolation, sexuality and displacement through intimate, female-centered storytelling.
The program featured screenings of Arbid’s short and feature films across New York City venues, alongside a filmmaker mixer, with select titles made available online. AFMI created the showcase to give Arab women filmmakers a platform, since their work often struggles to reach wider audiences.
Nanor Vosgueritchian, AFMI’s head of film programming, said the showcase aims to honor Arab women who have transformed artistic expression and to help audiences discover their films.
She said each edition puts the spotlight on one director, giving audiences a chance to dig deeper into that filmmaker’s full body of work, including films that rarely get public screenings.
Arbid’s experiences growing up during the Lebanese Civil War, and her later move to Paris, have gone on to shape a body of work known for tackling personal and political themes head on, without holding back.
Vosgueritchian said Arbid’s gift lies in capturing specific situations and emotions that resonate broadly, pointing to films such as “In the Battlefields” and “Parisienne” as reflections of her autobiographical approach.
Vosgueritchian added that Arab women filmmakers, including Cherien Dabis, Kaouther Ben Hania and Annemarie Jacir, are leading a new wave of Arab cinema gaining visibility at international festivals.
She said she hopes the retrospective encourages audiences to look beyond preconceived notions of Arab film and explore the wider diversity of Arab storytelling.
