Welcome to Falastin Film Festival 2025!

Falastin Film Festival (FFF) is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit collective of Palestinians and allies dedicated to bringing Palestinian art to Scottish audiences. Palestinians are often summed up as an ‘occupied people,’ and spoken for, though they have unending stories to tell. Using cinema, primarily, we strive to decolonize the narrative and equip audiences with historical context. We want to build community while celebrating Palestinian art and culture through cinema, music, cuisine, and other storytelling mediums.

Scotland’s exposure to Palestinian history, art, and culture remains rather limited. We hope to contribute to filling this gap, using both classical and contemporary cinema, primarily, but not exclusively. We strive to highlight Palestinian steadfast resistance to erasure, cultural preservation, stories of love, and in the words of poet Rafeef Ziadah, teachings of life. In so doing, we hope to provide a vibrant representation that encompasses the geographic, linguistic, and experiential diversity of the Palestinian people, globally, all the while educating our audiences on the more than 100 years of zionist occupation they’ve endured.

In the current political context, where we are witnessing escalated violence against Palestinians and intensified efforts to suppress their voices, screening Palestinian stories and showcasing Palestinian art is more important than ever. This act of bearing witness and creating space for Palestinian perspectives is a crucial step in resisting erasure and fostering transnational solidarity. 

Having hosted our very first edition last year, we are committed to making FFF an annual event. We were deeply moved by the response and turnout at last year's festival. Our goal was to create a space for community (un)learning, gathering, discussion, and action. Around 1,200 people attended our events! We hope to create a similar experience at this year's festival.

This year’s festival will take place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh on May 16, 17, and 18 - following Nakba Day (May 15), the day of commemoration for the Palestinian Nakba. We are working to add other locations which will be disclosed at a later date. 

Last year’s festival was funded through the generous donations from our crowdfunding campaign, a series of grassroots community events, the generous support of Grand Plan, Scottish Palestinian Forum, Rhubaba, Embassy Gallery, and Edinburgh Arts Festival, and the sale of merchandise. We later donated £2,634 from our ticket sales to Ain Media, Amplify Gaza, Ele Elna Elak, UNRWA, and Islamic Relief. We are committed to dedicating a portion of our ticket sales to supporting reconstruction efforts in Gaza this year as well. 

We recognize the overwhelming need of our people in Gaza and ask that you only donate to our campaign if you are ALSO able to donate to mutual aids on the ground in Gaza. We do not want to detract any funds from where they are direly needed. 

We are so excited to welcome you once again this May. To stay up to date, sign up to our newsletter at falastinfilmfest.com and follow us @falastinfilmfest on Instagram!