DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival

📣 We’re growing our team!

DCPFAF is seeking year-round volunteers for three key roles:

📌 Digital Fundraising Coordinator: This role will help ensure the sustainability of the festival by taking the lead on and implementing a comprehensive digital fundraising strategy.

📌 Event Operations Coordinator: This role will help ensure seamless coordination and ex*****on of all events.

📌 Program Coordinator: This role will support the curation process for film and arts programming.

If you’re passionate about Palestinian storytelling, arts & culture, and community-driven work, we’d love to work with you.
👉 Learn more + apply: dcpfaf.org/volunteer

Thanks to everyone who made it out to .dc to join our talk with !

Elias was kind enough to share with us the challenges he faced while covering this intersection of Q***r and Arab identities. We loved seeing our community get together to discuss navigating personal identity within cultural identity and celebrate the beauty of chosen family.

Stay tuned for future DCPFAF events that you won’t want to miss.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR SATURDAY, APRIL 11

April is Arab American Heritage Month! This weekend, we will be attending the 4th Annual DC Arab Culture Festival.

Join us at 2:00pm and 4:00pm for special short film screenings from local Palestinian filmmakers, as well as a discussion with the filmmakers after the 2:00 screening.

You won’t want to miss it. See you there!

Join us Thursday, April 16 at 6:30pm at Middle East Books and More .dc for the DC launch of This Q***r Arab Family, an anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab writers from around the world. The DC Palestinian Film & Arts Festival is excited to bring editor Elias Jahshan from London for the DC launch. DCPFAF will be in conversation with Elias followed by a Q&A and book signing.

📆 Thursday, April 16 at 6:30pm
📍Middle East Books and More (1902 18th St NW Washington, DC 20009)
🎟️ General Admission $17 dcpfaf.org/events

About the Book:
In Arab culture, tradition often dictates an individual’s role in a family, with personal desires subsumed in favour of unity. So, what happens when Q***r Arabs challenge and re-imagine these expectations?

This Q***r Arab Family celebrates the beauty of chosen kin and the everyday acts of care and survival that bind Q***r Arabs to each other. Here, ten LGBTQ+ writers from across the Arab world and diaspora redefine what family looks like.

DCPFAF 2026 is LIVE! Submit your films today.

🚨CALL FOR FILM SUBMISSIONS!🚨

We are very happy to announce that film submissions for the 2026 DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival are now open!

This year we are celebrating 15 YEARS of DCPFAF. That’s 15 years of bringing incredible Palestinian storytelling directly to Washington, DC. 

We’re looking for both feature and short films from Palestinian directors, producers, and writers from all around the world for our festival this October. 

Do you know a Palestinian filmmaker we should be in touch with? Spread the word and share this post! Are you a Palestinian filmmaker? We invite you to submit your film by May 31, 2026 at dcpfaf.org/submissions

🚨CALL FOR FILM SUBMISSIONS!🚨

We are very happy to announce that film submissions for the 2026 DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival are now open!

This year we are celebrating 15 YEARS of DCPFAF. That’s 15 years of bringing incredible Palestinian storytelling directly to Washington, DC. 

We’re looking for both feature and short films from Palestinian directors, producers, and writers from all around the world for our festival this October. 

Do you know a Palestinian filmmaker we should be in touch with? Spread the word and share this post! Are you a Palestinian filmmaker? We invite you to submit your film by May 31, 2026 at dcpfaf.org/submissions

20 films. 2 pickling workshops. 2 children’s programs, a listening session, special exhibit and performance.

As we reflect on the festival, we remind you one last time of the themes central to this year’s event: embracing disruption and channeling our unapologetic rage toward a just future. As festival curator Michael Kamel said in his opening remarks, “We will keep fighting and honoring every single Palestinian until we reach liberation, hand-in-hand, with our oppressed brothers and sisters around the world.”

We’d like to thank all of the filmmakers, artists, advocates, health leaders, sponsors and volunteers who came together to make this year’s festival possible. And we thank YOU for showing up to support Palestinian film and art.

We’re not going anywhere! Stay tuned for more soon!

Today marks two years since the start of Israel’s brutal genocide on Gaza. More than 67,000 lives have been stolen. Families have been erased, generations cut short, entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble. The scale of horror is incomprehensible, but its intent is clear: to extinguish Palestinian life and memory.

On this day of mourning and commemoration, we come together to amplify and remember Palestinian voices from around the world—those martyred and those still with us—as we continue the struggle for liberation. ❤️‍🔥

3 DAYS LEFT!!!!! HERE IS OUR FINAL 2025 PROGRAM ❤️‍🔥

Thank you to everyone who has bought tickets! Some events are already SOLD OUT!!

Get tickets for this weekend at dcpfaf.org/2025

Join us for the East Coast premiere of this powerful feature film from directors Arab and Tarzan Nasser. This 87-minute film offers an intimate look at friendship, survival, and resilience in Gaza through the lens of two unlikely partners navigating corruption and daily challenges.

Presented in Arabic with English subtitles as our closing night film.

Content warning: Violence, blood, drug use

🌎 Fatma Hassouna Auditorium (MLK Library Main Auditorium) | 901 G St NW 📆 Sunday, October 12 at 6:00 PM ET 🎫 $17 general/$20 door, purchase at dcpfaf.org/2025 or link in bio