08/02/2026
Announcing the winners of the TAFF26 Awards!
After six unforgettable days celebrating powerful stories from across the Arab world and diaspora, we’re honoured to recognize this year’s award-winning filmmakers.
Congratulations to all of our recipients, whose work moved our juries and audiences alike with bold storytelling, exceptional artistry, and unforgettable performances.
✨ Swipe through to meet the winners:
• Nakheel Jury Award for Best Feature Film
• Juthour Jury Award for Best Short Film
• Qayqub Jury Award for Best Canadian Short Film
• Yamama Audience Choice Award
To every filmmaker who shared their work with us, and to everyone who joined us throughout TAFF26, thank you for making this year’s Festival such a meaningful celebration of Arab cinema!
For its fearless honesty and refusal to make collapse palatable, the jury awards the top prize to “The cats, the sea, and everything in between.” With nothing but a camera and an unsparing eye, Karel Malkoun finds the absurd, the beautiful, and the devastating living side by side in Lebanon.
Yassmina Karajah guides the audience in pitting cultural contradictions against one another. By juxtaposing the difficulties of early adulthood in modern Jordan, “Ambush | Kameen” separately follows Jana and Hasan; two 20-somethings from opposing worlds in the same city. Jana’s struggle with her recent sobriety is challenged inside a pop-up techno club encroaching on Old Amman, implanted across a rooftop of a restaurant where the traditionally-minded and frequently-heartbroken Hasan sits with his friends, judging the party-goers.
For its poignant and deeply humane portrait of Toufic, whose unexpected awakening becomes a moving meditation on aging, dignity, and the enduring desire to feel fully alive. With remarkable sensitivity and understated confidence, director Karim Rahbani transforms a simple premise into a richly emotional cinematic experience, reminding us that the search for joy and human connection never grows old.
“Nader’s Girl” resonated with audiences through its darkly comic storytelling, sharp social commentary, and a standout performance by Anas Hasan, exploring the complexities of identity, and belongi
