The long game of film

For all the glitz and glamor that will descend upon Cannes in a few days, the world’s most respected film festival is also a battleground. It was created in 1939 to stand against the fascist influence that had taken over the Venice Film Festival.

Since then, it has been a place where art turns into soft power and where different ideologies compete not only for a Palme d’Or but for the world’s hearts and minds.

The two opposing forces that have been pitted against each other in Cannes over recent years are cinema and social media. In other words: duration versus the instant.

On one side, films that take years to make and demand two hours of undivided attention. On the other, the instant: red-carpet selfies that go viral in seconds and are forgotten in minutes. In 2018, Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux banned selfies, calling them “grotesque.” Yet, in 2025, Tom Cruise took a selfie with the whole “Mission: Impossible” cast, labeling it “Mission: Selfie.” This is not just about festival etiquette. It embodies the tension at the heart of the most powerful cultural tool any nation could possess: the moving image.

This tension is particularly relevant to the Arab world today. Our region lives at the center of the world’s most consequential fault lines. We, of all people, know that getting the story right is existential. Recent history has shown us that when the instant dominates the narrative, the first casualty is truth. As we navigate the turbulent world around us, telling our own story is not a luxury. It is a strategic imperative and a sovereign resource.

Choosing the instant over duration is the response that would seem the most obvious. Social media is, after all, powerful, fast and cheap. Moreover, the population of the Arab world is young and passionately engaged with social media. To add another nail to film’s coffin, one could also look at the rise of 90-second micro-dramas in the Middle East and North Africa region. Isn’t the $7 billion economy that micro-dramas created in China reason enough to throw film under the TikTok bus?

Not quite.

If one steps back, the big picture tells a different story: China’s theatrical box office takings surged 22 percent the same year that micro-drama exploded. The vertical screen and the silver screen grew together.

History provides further perspective. In the 1950s, the rise of television in the US nearly cut movie ticket sales by half. The industry was in a panic. Many considered TV to be the barbarian at the gate of cinema, about to cause its demise. History proved them wrong. Television turned out to be the sandbox of cinema. Directors such as Steven Spielberg rose from television and went on to change cinema forever.

New media is not the enemy.

The appetite for cinema in the Arab world is evident. Egypt, the Maghreb and the Levant all have a well-storied love for film. More recently, the Saudi box office rose from nonexistence in 2018 to regional heavyweight — 42 percent of MENA box office revenues — in eight years.

Will Arab countries win or lose the battle for the global imagination? 

Salem Brahimi

Regional streamer Shahid is outpacing global giants in the region. All over the Middle East, infrastructure for production is being built and regional and national funds support films that tour the world’s best festivals. Does this mean that the battle for Arab cinema is won?

Not quite.

For all the world-class talent we have in the Arab world, the success stories are still outliers. They need to become systemic. For all the infrastructure we have built, it is only hardware, still awaiting its software: operating systems that nurture talent, diversity and dependable funding models.

Time is a critical factor here. And so, we go full circle: duration versus the instant.

Most countries in the region are rightly prioritizing national resilience and defense. Film is not a distraction from these pursuits. It is a powerful vehicle for them. Hard power must be seconded with soft power. But soft power cannot be declared. It must be earned. Every venture capital firm in Silicon Valley knows you must invest in 10 startups to get one winner. The same goes for soft power and its flagship: film.

South Korea has recently emerged as a soft power giant, notably with the film “Parasite” and the TV series “Squid Game.” These successes are the result of a long-term bet on film schools, creative experimentation and public policy.

Many countries in the Arab world have made the same bet. Now is not the time to let crisis disrupt those investments. Defense and resilience concerns should be the motivation to stay on course with film ambitions.

There are no barbarians at the gate of cinema. Cinema will only be dead if we believe it is. The industry is changing, of course. Artificial intelligence, social media and new voices are already transforming the art form. But the facts say that the audience is hungry for stories, both long and short. History tells us that cinema reinvents itself through time, feeding from the technologies that challenge it.

The only question is whether we believe in our own voices enough to play the long game of cinema. The answer will determine whether countries from the Arab world win or lose the most important — and peaceful — battle of all: the battle to capture imaginations.

• Salem Brahimi is a French-Algerian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. Born in London, his films, including “Let Them Come” and “Abd-El-Kader,” bring Arab stories to international audiences. A voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he advises cultural and media leaders and their organizations across Europe and the Middle East.