DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival

We’re thrilled to share our full program lineup for the 11th DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival. The festival will open with the DC Launch of Visualizing Palestine’s book, followed by three days of award-winning films, discussions, and an art workshop.

We can’t wait to bring the community together and honor Palestinian voices and artistry at such a critical time.

Schedule:

3:00 - 5:00 PM

Lyd (DC Premiere) + The Key (DC Premiere)

Lyd

A sci-fi documentary that follows the rise and fall of Lyd — a 5,000-year-old metropolis that was once a bustling Palestinian town until it was conquered when the State of Israel was established in 1948. As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion.

Official Selections and Awards

- Amman International Film Festival 2023 – Winner of the Jury Award for Arab Feature-Length Documentary and FIPRESCI Award from the International Critics Association

- Middle East Now Festival 2023

- Yashwant International Film Festival 2024

- Reel Palestine 2024

- Melbourne Science Fiction Film Festival 2024

- Al Ard Film Festival 2024

- Sguardi Altrove International Women’s Film Festival 2024

- Palestine Film Festival in Australia 2024

- Toronto Palestine Film Festival 2024

- Boston Palestine Film Festival 2024

The Key

An Israeli family’s equilibrium gradually disintegrates as a mysterious sound is heard every evening at the door of their apartment.

Based on a short story by Anwar Hamed

6:00 - 8:00 PM

No Other Land (DC Premiere)

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community’s mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families - the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

Official Selections and Awards

- Berlinale 2024 – Winner of the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary

- Encounters South African International Documentary Festival – Winner of the Al Jazeera Award for Best International Documentary

- CPH:DOX – Winner of the Audience Award

- Visions du Réel International Film Festival Nyon – Winner of the Audience Award in the Grand Angle Competition

- Sheffield International Documentary Festival - Winner of the Tim Hetherington Award

- Belfast Film Festival – Winner of the Maysles Brothers Award for Feature Documentary

- IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival – Winner of the Audience Award for Best Feature Film

- Millennium Docs Against Gravity – Winner of the Grand Prix Bank Millennium Award for Best Film, the Bydgoszcz ART.DOC Award and the Audience Award

- ZagrebDox – Winner of the Audience Award

- Human International Documentary Film Festival – Winner of the The International Human Rights Human Wrongs Film Award, International Competititon

- MDOC - Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival – Winner of the Don Quijote Award for Best International Feature Length Film

- Boston Palestine Film Festival 2024

Location: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library Auditorium

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