About & Contact

Cinemayaat is an annual online magazine from the Arab Film and Media Institute, a non profit organization founded by the team behind the largest and oldest Arab Film Festival in North America. AFMI’s mission is to enhance public understanding of Arab culture and provide insight into the beauty, complexity and diversity intrinsic to the Arab world. In line with this mission, Cinemayaat was founded to grow the discourse and profile of classic and contemporary cinema from the Arab world through critical, personal and experimental essays.

For decades, cinema from the Arab world has been underappreciated and underseen—not just by cinephiles from the Western world, but even within the SWANA region. The best-known film magazines consistently put out thoughtful essays every month, but a very low percentage of the output centers on the work of Arab auteurs. These online magazines also largely do not have Arab staff and are not familiar with Arab life or culture, and there does not currently exist an English language platform exclusively dedicated to analyzing the rich history of the Arab film industry to combat this issue.

Cinemayaat is a place for Arab film lovers, old and new, to read creative pieces on films, actors, directors, screenwriters and everything in between from the Arab world. Whether it’s an essay tracing a director’s entire career, an actor’s most electric performance, or a nostalgic retrospective, Cinemayaat will be a space for film community and discovery.