Edition 2025
Panorama of Algerian Cinema
This selection traces Algerian cinema, connecting memory, struggles, and rebirth, blending classics with new voices. It reveals a dialogue between generations and affirms cinema as a language of freedom, dignity, and transmission, bringing audiences together around a living heritage oriented toward the future.
Open Doors on Palestine
This program, organized in collaboration with Film Lab Palestine and the Rashid Masharawi Foundation, brings together eight award-winning films that transform pain and struggle into cinematic language. They explore memory, identity, exile, and resistance, embodying a cinema of truth and hope, inviting audiences to deeply feel a shared humanity.
Tribute to Cuban cinema
This selection offers a fresh window into Cuban cinema, blending political fervor, aesthetic pursuit, and collective memory. The works reveal the story of a people through a critical eye, a humanistic spirit, and revolutionary hope. Whether acclaimed or debated, they remain landmarks of a Southern cinema inventing its own free grammar.
Zahira Yahi is among the people honored at the opening ceremony.
She began her career at Algerian Radio (Channel III), where she stood out for programs addressing sensitive social issues, earning her a reputation as a free and committed woman.
She then served as chief of staff at the Ministry of Culture for over ten years, and her name remains closely associated with the organization of the Algiers International Film Festival (FICA).
There, she promoted an ambitious vision for national cinema and contributed to the emergence of a new generation of Algerian filmmakers.
Known for her intellectual independence and deep commitment to Algerian culture, she has left a strong and lasting mark on the media and the cinematic landscape.
Although her official duties ended in 2023, her name continues to symbolize perseverance and cultural leadership in Algeria.
The artist Salah Aougrout will be honored at the opening ceremony.
Known artistically and to the general public as “Souilah,” he is one of Algeria’s most prominent comedians. Born in 1961, he began his career in theater before making his mark on television and cinema, creating works that have become iconic, such as the films Carnaval fi Dachra and Mal Watani, as well as the series Djemaï Family, Sultan Achour El Acher, and Bouzeid Days.
He has distinguished himself with a unique comedic style, combining facial expressiveness with physical gestures, which has earned him immense popularity and made him a true icon of comedy and Algerian art in general.