At a film festival known for red carpets and big premieres, a very different kind of project has made its debut: a new film academy being built for Gaza.
The Gaza Cinema Academy was launched this week at the Venice Film Festival by a group of Palestinian, Arab and international filmmakers and film industry professionals. The idea is simple, but ambitious: create a lasting space where people in Gaza can learn filmmaking, make films and get their stories in front of audiences around the world.
So, What Exactly Is the Gaza Cinema Academy?
The academy aims to create a sustainable home for film education, training and production in Gaza.
That means teaching aspiring filmmakers, supporting young talent and women, developing new Palestinian films and creating opportunities for filmmakers in Gaza to connect with the wider Palestinian, Arab and international film community.
It is also developing a filmmaking degree that would be accredited by Al Quds Open University, giving the project an educational foundation alongside its filmmaking programmes.
Who Is Behind It?
The project has brought together a pretty impressive group of names from across the film world.
Among its supporters are directors Kaouther Ben Hania, Annemarie Jacir, Mai Masri and Ezzaldeen Shalh, who is also a co-founder. Actors Hiam Abbas, Ramy Youssef and Saleh Bakri are also backing the academy.
The team also includes Italian producer Graziella Bildesheim and Egyptian film distributor and Arab film industry promoter Alaa Karkouti.
It’s Not Just About Teaching Filmmaking
The academy wants to tackle the part that comes after the classroom too.
It is looking to build relationships with film festivals, universities, cultural institutions, production companies and film funds, creating a network that can help filmmakers in Gaza develop projects, produce them and eventually get them onto international festival screens and platforms.
In other words, the goal isn’t simply “learn how to make a film.” It is “learn how to make one, find support for it and actually get people to see it.”
Why Cinema Matters in Gaza
For Ezzaldeen Shalah, who founded the Gaza International Women’s Film Festival and co-founded the academy, filmmaking is also about who gets to control the story.
“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.”
The academy hopes to give young people and women in Gaza those tools, allowing them to document their experiences and create their own images of life there.
Palestine Is Already on the Venice Screen
The academy’s launch also comes at a moment when Palestinian cinema has a presence at Venice itself.
Two Palestinian films are part of this year’s official selection: Ahmed Hassouna’s Citizen Osama, which follows a photographer balancing fatherhood and journalism while documenting the realities of war in Gaza, and Muayad Alayan’s Conversation With the Sea, about a 60-year-old Palestinian man caught in the complexities of Israeli bureaucracy.
So while the academy is being introduced in Venice, Palestinian filmmakers are already making their way onto the festival’s screens.
What Comes Next?
The Venice launch is really the beginning of the conversation.
The academy is now looking for more universities, festivals, cultural institutions, film funds and industry partners to help build its teaching and production programmes.
For Mai Masri, one of the academy’s co-founders, that broader purpose is what makes cinema worth investing in:
“We believe that creativity and cinema can empower, preserve human memory, and build bridges that transcend borders.”
And that is ultimately what the Gaza Cinema Academy is trying to build: not just a place to make films, but an institution that can help a new generation of Palestinian filmmakers learn, create and make sure their stories travel far beyond Gaza.
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