Safi – Lebanese-Moroccan filmmaker Shaden Safieddine Tazi will present her short documentary “Quelques instants de bonheur” (A Few Moments of Happiness) in the Orizzonti short-film competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which runs from September 2-12.
The 18-minute documentary follows a young Lebanese filmmaker who watches the war in Lebanon from her bed in Paris, tracing it through the screen of her phone.
Built from screen recordings, family voices and long silences, it draws a portrait of a generation left to witness the destruction of its homeland from far away.
Her film is one of 13 shorts competing for the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film, a prize decided by the section’s jury. Produced by France and the United Kingdom, it will screen on September 10-11.
A second Moroccan link at Venice
Morocco has another stake in this year’s edition. “Eldorado, the Taste of the South” was selected for Final Cut in Venice, the festival’s platform dedicated to films in the post-production stage.
Directed by Alaa Eddine Aljem, it is a co-production between Morocco, France, Italy, and Norway.
That program sits apart from the competition. Over three days in early September, the six chosen works in progress will be shown to producers, buyers, and festival programmers to help them finish and find a home.
Aljem’s film follows migrants in search of a hidden island where everyone lives in peace.
Arab directors across the sections
Beyond the two Moroccan links, several Arab filmmakers turn up across the 2026 selection.
Danish-Egyptian director May el-Toukhy will compete for the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize, with “Woman Unknown,” one of the films in the main competition.
Two Palestinian directors made the cut as well.
Ahmed Hassouna will screen “Citizen Osama” out of competition, a France and Palestine documentary about a photographer recording the devastation in Gaza.
Muayad Alayan will bring “Conversation With the Sea” to the Venezia Spotlight section, a Jerusalem story of a father searching for the truth about his son, presumed drowned.
Lebanon adds a second name through Rami Kodeih, whose “Furies” will also play in Venezia Spotlight, which follows two women who plan an overnight robbery during Lebanon’s banking crisis.
Beyond the Arab world
African cinema runs through the program too.
From Cameroon, Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu entered “La Maison du Vent” (House of the Wind) in the Orizzonti competition for feature films, the same section as Safieddine Tazi’s short.
Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, one of the continent’s most decorated names, takes “Artou” into Venice Immersive, the festival’s home for virtual-reality and interactive work.
Venice Classics, for its part, will show a restored print of “Udju Azul di Yonta” (The Blue Eyes of Yonta), the 1991 film by Flora Gomes of Guinea-Bissau.
