CineMAS 2026: SEEING TOGETHER
At a time when we move through more images than we can hold, CineMAS 2026 slows the act of seeing down again. Held at Manarat Al Saadiyat, the festival treats cinema not as a schedule of films, but as a shared way of paying attention—to place, to memory, to each other.
Across seven days, CineMAS unfolds through shifting “Zooms”: different distances of seeing that move between the city and the intimate, the everyday and the imagined, the present and what comes next. Each shift is not a theme, but a change in perspective.
The festival begins in the city itself. On International Museum Day, audiences move through the Saadiyat Cultural District in a mobile filmmaking walk developed with Tribe W Nos, turning observation into creation. This opening gesture, alongside the Golden Hour showcase of short-form works and a screening of the latest local hit, HOBA, sets the tone for a festival built on shared attention.
From there, CineMAS moves into programmes of local shorts, emerging voices, and experimental work developed before arriving at its core: three carefully selected independent feature films.
Each film offers a different way of seeing the world—closer, further, inward, or beyond. Between these anchor screenings, the festival opens space for quieter forms of cinema: memory, atmosphere, and shared presence in time.
On its final day, CineMAS extends beyond the screening room with a closing gesture at Taparelle, where a silent film screening will be accompanied by a live DJ performance—bringing image, sound, and audience into a shared, immersive moment.
