Dear friends,

I have been lucky enough to lead AFLAMUNA.online for six years, and I wanted to write to you myself, one last time, before we close this chapter together.

I still remember the early days in 2020, when this was just an idea slowly finding its feet: offering a home for independent Arab cinema, somewhere it could exist beyond festivals and theatres, and reach its audience differently. I had no idea then that this idea would grow into streaming more than 400 films, from debut shorts and features by young filmmakers taking their first steps to cult films and restored classics that had almost slipped into silence.
What we take with us from these years is not the numbers. It is the films that found their audience, Arab and international, precisely when they needed to. Films about war, displacement, memory, resistance, identity, belonging, the environment, everything we and our audiences were living through, sometimes all at once.

The filmmakers and programmers trusted us, often with a generosity that still moves me. And it is those conversations, the passionate ones, the unexpected ones, that began simply because someone, somewhere, had just finished watching a film on AFLAMUNA.online.
This platform was never just a place to watch films. It became a space for sharing and reflection.

On a professional level, we worked to build something solid and coherent. Artistically, we ensured every programme carried meaning and purpose, offering a perspective worth sitting with, one capable of sparking an emotion, a question, or a conversation. I believe this intersection of professional rigour and artistic vision gave AFLAMUNA.online its distinct identity.

Before we close on November 26, we want to offer you one last selection of films that have shaped this journey. Watch them again, or let them find you for the first time.

Finally, my deepest thanks go to the team who carried this platform through every circumstance, even the most difficult. Those moments when we had to rethink everything, sometimes in the midst of war, without ever stopping or giving up. Thank you to our guest programmers who enriched our monthly line-ups, to our partners, and to the filmmakers, distributors, and sales agents who entrusted us with their films. And above all, thank you to you, who were there, film after film, year after year; this journey would have meant nothing without you.

Our screen is fading out, but films never stop travelling.
Long live independent Arab cinema.

Renée Awit
AFLAMUNA.online Project Manager