Locarno Film Festival 2026: Palestine, Iran and Gaza's genocide continue to dominate debate Submitted by Joseph Fahim on Wed, 08/26/2026 - 09:41 The 79th iteration of the iconic festival took place in Switzerland between 5 and 15 August 'Concrete Land' follows the lives of an Afro-Palestinian Bedouin clan near Amman (Arkima Films) Off For the film festival circuit, this was supposed to be the year when Gaza and the Middle East faded into the background. Since 7 October , Gaza has been the dominant subject at major film festivals, rocking Berlin, dominating Venice, and making headlines in Toronto, Cannes and beyond. Switzerland’s Locarno has been among the most hospitable fairs to the Palestinian cause and to Middle Eastern voices. Palestinian and Lebanese filmmakers and films, such as Maha Haj’s Upshot (2004) and Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza (2025), have featured prominently in the festival’s selections in recent years. Last year, Locarno’s Italian director, Giona A Nazzaro, delivered an impassioned speech denouncing “the intolerable destruction of Gaza and the terrible humanitarian tragedy that is afflicting the Palestinian people with the violence of bombs and famine”. The so-called ceasefire agreement of October 2025 was supposed to bring the curtain down on the most destabilising global event of the decade and relieve film festivals of the need to devise delicate ways of navigating such a highly incendiary subject. However, the aftermath of February’s Berlin Film Festival proved that Gaza remains front and centre in festival politics. As this year’s edition of Locarno made evident, the equally divisive war in Iran may further complicate a political landscape that shows no signs of settling down anytime soon.