Gaza Cinema Academy Launches To Help Gazans Tell Their Own Stories
The official launch of the Gaza Cinema Academy was announced at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, as the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory continues to dominate global news.
The initiative – co-founded by Palestinian filmmakers Ezzaldeen Shalh and Mai Masri – aims to establish a sustainable space for film education, training and production in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza-based director and film academic Shalh is known for works such as The Dry Spring, The Other World and Love and Bread as well as for spearheading the Gaza International Women’s Film Festival.
“In Gaza, cinema is not merely an art form; it is a means of preserving memory, reclaiming our right to shape our own image, and giving a new generation the tools to tell its own story,” he said.
The launch was accompanied by a short film showing Shalh in the classroom with aspiring female filmmakers talking about their desire to bring their stories to the big screen.
Palestinian film and TV heavyweights Annemarie Jacir, Hiam Abbass and Saleh Bakri have gotten behind the initiative, with Egyptian comedian and filmmaker Ramy Youssef, Tunisian The Voice of Hind Rajab director Kaouther Ben Hania, who is in Venice this year as a member of the jury; Italian producer Graziella Bildesheim, and Alaa Karkouti, cofounder of Cairo-based film promotion and talent company Mad Solutions, also lending their support.
The official launch of the academy is the next step in a process that began in 2024 with the development of the Gaza Filmmaking Diploma, a nine-month theoretical and practical filmmaking training which welcomed its first intake of 25 young Palestinian women in March 2026.
The academy is also working to develop a filmmaking degree accredited by Al-Quds Open University, the main higher education institute for Palestinians, with the aim of establishing a sustainable academic pathway for film education in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian cinema pioneer Masri is best known for her 2015 feature 3000 Nights, which premiered in Toronto and the played numerous festivals worldwide.
“Supporting a new generation of filmmakers in Gaza means giving them a space to express their reality, memory and dreams. We believe that creativity and cinema can empower, preserve human memory, and build bridges that transcend borders,” she said.
Shalh invited film and cultural institutions, festivals, film funds, production companies, filmmakers and related organizations around the world to build partnerships with the Academy, to exchanging expertise, provide resources and professional opportunities.
“We want the Academy to open a window for young people and women in Gaza to learn, create and make their own films, and for their voices and images to reach the world. We invite our partners in institutions, universities and the international film community to be part of building this space,” he said.
