Over the past decade, Sudan has experienced a cinematic revival, gaining international recognition through award-winning films such as what is widely considered Sudan’s first feature film, You Will Die at 20 (2019), followed by Goodbye Julia (2023) and, most recently, Cotton Queen (2025). Behind these films are a new generation of acclaimed Sudanese filmmakers, including Amjad Abu Alala, Mohamed Kordofani and Suzannah Mirghani.
Sudanese documentaries have also garnered international acclaim. These include Talking About Trees (2019) by Suhaib Gasmelbari, Sudan, Remember Us (2024) by French journalist and filmmaker Hind Meddeb, and, most recently, Khartoum (2025), made by Sudanese filmmakers Ibrahim Ahmed (Snoopy), Anas Saeed, Timeea Ahmed and Rawia Alhag, alongside British writer-director Phil Cox and Palestinian film editor Yousef Jubeh.
The revival of Sudanese cinema is far from over. Established and emerging filmmakers continue to create films that tell Sudanese stories and bring the country’s experiences, perspectives and creative voices to audiences and screens around the world.
After the Event or Post-Trauma Trilogy:
Nothing Happens After That, Nothing Happens After Your Absence, and Nothing Happens After the Revolution
The After the Event or Post-Trauma trilogy are short Sudanese films written, directed and produced by Sudanese filmmaker and writer Ibrahim Omar, exploring themes of memory, exile, and the fragility of identity. It includes Nothing Happens After That, Nothing Happens After the Revolution, and Nothing Happens After Your Absence.
Nothing Happens After That (2024) follows Thomas, who in a diligent attempt, seeks to find a final resting place for his only child, but he is surprised that today is not the right day to do so. “Nothing Happens After That” won the International Jury Award at the 41st edition of the XOCIVIGA International Short Film Festival, held in Spain.
Runtime: 12 mins
Screenplay: Ibrahim Omar
Editing: Khaled Moeit, Amir Ahmad
Nothing Happens After the Revolution (2026) follows Ibrahim, who while making his graduation film in Cairo, learns that his home country, Sudan, is being shaken by revolution. In the film’s fictional story, a family is unable to bury their deceased child – a theme that strangely echoes the sense of powerlessness experienced by the filmmaker. Its French version has been recently released under the title as Nadine, la Révolution et moi (Nadine, the Revolution and Me).
Runtime: 79 mins
Screenplay: Ibrahim Omar
Photography: Ibrahim Omar
Editing: Youhanna Nagy
Sound: Ahmed X
Production: Ibrahim Omar
Nothing Happens After Your Absence (2026) follows Ibrahim as he goes back to the village he once left, hoping to screen films. But as he wrestles with custom and bureaucracy, war ignites across Sudan, turning his search for a screen into a battle to stay alive.
Runtime: 16 mins
Cast: Ibrahim Omar, Ali Hommed, Hommed Mohammed Ali, Qassem Al Araby, Mohammed Yaqoub
Photography: Ala Kheir
Editing: Ziad Faid, Youhanna Nagy
Screenplay: Ibrahim Omar
Sound: Ala Kheir, Ibrahim Omar, Youssef Assaf
The trilogy is still making the rounds and receiving recognition.
Cotton Queen (2025)
Cotton Queen is Sudan’s first female-written and female-directed narrative feature, expanding on the story of Al-Sit, Mirghani’s 2020 short film about a teenage girl facing an arranged marriage, into a coming-of-age drama.
Set in a cotton-farming village in Sudan, the film follows teenage Nafisa, who finds herself caught between tradition and change. When a businessman arrives offering genetically modified cotton and a marriage proposal, she becomes the centre of a struggle over the village’s future. As her grandmother, Al Sit, clings to established hierarchies, Nafisa begins to discover her own power and voice.
A tender yet politically charged coming-of-age story, Cotton Queen explores women’s resilience, self-determination and the struggle to shape one’s own destiny.
The internationally co-produced drama is written and directed by Suzannah Mirghani in her feature directorial debut. It stars Mihad Murtada, Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud, Talaat Fareed, Haram Bisheer, Mohamed Musa and Hassan Kassala.
Cotton Queen premiered in Critics’ Week at the 2025 Venice Film Festival.
- Director and writer: Suzannah Mirghani
Runtime: 94 mins - Producers: Caroline Daube, Didar Domehri
- Cinematographer: Frida Marzouk
- Music Composer: Amine Bouhafa
- Production Companies: Strange Bird, Maneki Films, Philistine Films, Film Clinic (Germany, France, Palestine, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan)
Cast and Characters: Mihad Murtada (Nafisa), Rabha Mohamed Mahmoud (Al-Sit) - Talaat Fareed, Haram Bisheer, Mohamed Musa, and Hassan Kassala
- Language: Arabic (with English subtitles)
Is It War? (2025)
Is It War? is a 2025 experimental short film directed by Sudanese filmmaker Timeea Mohamed Ahmed. It explores exile, psychological trauma and the continuing human impact of Sudan’s civil war through the story of Jafar, an artist disconnected from his Sudanese roots.
Set against the backdrop of a forest, Jafar, dressed in traditional “Aragy” attire, embarks on a surreal journey through a fragmented inner world shaped by the horrors of war and a fractured sense of identity. As a member of the Sudanese diaspora, he mentally escapes the brutal realities of the conflict in his homeland. Through a series of visually striking and symbolic scenes, the film conveys his inner turmoil while reflecting on the shared experiences of Sudanese people across ethnicities and affiliations.
Is It War? premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in February 2025.
Director and writer: Timeea Mohamed Ahmed
Cast: Jafar Ameen, Habeeb Allah Lokain
Runtime: 5-6 minutes
Language: Arabic
Production Company: Seqcreative
Khartoum (2025)
Khartoum is a feature documentary following five people navigating the dangerous landscape of war-torn Sudan. Their stories intertwine as they pursue their dreams, confront political turmoil and overcome extraordinary obstacles while struggling for freedom and survival in a country engulfed by conflict.
Khadmallah, a single mother and tea lady, engages her daily customers in gossip and conversation in the days leading up to the war, but must rescue her daughter when fighting breaks out. Jawad, a rescue volunteer and medic who dreams of falling in love, is forced to flee to Egypt as the war claims the lives of his friends. Civil servant Magdi finds an escape from office life by racing pigeons with his son, but soon has to defend his home as the fighting threatens to destroy everything he has built his life around.
Presented by Native Voice Films and Sudan Film Factory, in association with BBC Storyville, Gisa Productions, Ayin Network and XTR, Khartoum is directed by Sudanese filmmakers Ibrahim Ahmed (Snoopy), Anas Saeed, Timeea Ahmed and Rawia Alhag, alongside British writer and director Phil Cox and Palestinian film editor Yousef Jubeh.
Runtime: 78–80 mins
Directors: Ibrahim Ahmed (Snoopy), Anas Saeed, Timeea Ahmed, Rawia Alhag and Phil Cox
Cast: Khadmallah, a tea seller and single mother studying maths; Jawad, a resistance committee volunteer protesting the military regime; Lokain and Wilson, two street boys navigating daily survival; and Majdi, a civil servant caught in the conflict’s upheaval.
Languages: Arabic (with English subtitles)
Production Countries: Sudan, United Kingdom, Germany, Qatar
Production Companies: Sudan Film Factory, Native Voice Films
Producers: Giovanna Stopponi, Talal Afifi
Website: khartoummovie.com
What the Walls Did Not Say (2025)
What the Walls Did Not Say, also known as What the Walls Kept Silent, is a seven-minute independent Sudanese short film written and directed by Mohammed Zbiday. Created as a grassroots project, the film was produced in collaboration with Al-Raseef Theater Group and the Sudan Film Institute. It reflects a filmmaking philosophy centred on using available resources rather than waiting for traditional institutional funding.
The film was selected for the official short film competition at the 10th edition of the Arkawit Festival: 2nd Sudanese Film Gathering, “Exile.s and Commitment.s”, in Paris. It was also screened at international solidarity events in support of the Sudanese people and diaspora, including a “Solidarity Evening in Support of the Sudanese People” in Lautrec, southern France, organised by Café Plum in collaboration with the association Ma Case on 14 March 2026.
Director and writer: Mohammed Zbiday
Runtime: 7 mins
Cast: Qasem Elarabi with a special appearance by Nariman Fayez
Honourable mentions (2024-2025)
- Bougainvillea (2024)
- Braids of Identity (2025)
- Sudan, Remember Us (2024)
In Production
Blue Card (2026)
Blue Card is an upcoming Sudanese feature film from an award-winning creative team comprising director Mohammed Alomda, producer Amjad Abu Alala and writer Paula Thabet.
The film follows Abdullah, who flees alone to Egypt after war breaks out in Sudan and begins planning to smuggle his family out of the country. To raise the money he needs, he takes a demeaning job at a nursing home, where unexpected relationships begin to influence his choices and reshape his future.
Blue Card marks Alomda’s feature directorial debut. A key figure in Sudan’s new wave of cinema, he co-founded Station Films and produced Goodbye Julia, the first Sudanese film to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival. He also produced the Yemeni film The Burdened, which premiered at the Berlinale in 2023 and won the Amnesty International Film Prize.
The film has secured support from the Doha Film Institute (DFI) Grants Programme and the Berlinale World Cinema Fund. Managed by MAD World, the Sudan-Egypt-Germany-Saudi co-production is produced by Alomda and Abu Alala for Station Films, and co-produced by Germany’s Mayana Films, France’s Player Films, Norway’s Barents Film, and Saudi partners Red Sea Lodge and MBC Studios.
Blue Card is currently in pre-production, with filming scheduled for April and May 2026 and delivery planned for November 2026.
Director: Mohammed Alomda
Screenwriter: Paula Thabet
Cast: To be announced (TBA)
Producer: Amjad Abu Alala, Zorana Mušikić, May Odeh
Production Company: Alala for Station Films, Mayana Films, Player Films, Barents film, Red Sea Lodge and MBC Studios
Runtime: 90 mins
Countries: Sudan, Egypt, Germany
Hidden Journey
Hidden Journey is an upcoming short documentary by emerging Sudanese filmmaker Noura Adil. The film follows Adil and her sister, Duha, as they flee Sudan following the outbreak of war on 15 April 2023. Their journey takes them through rural Sudan and eventually to Rwanda, where they attempt to rebuild their lives while reflecting on the meanings of home and safety.
Described as a displacement journey turned adventure, the film traces the sisters’ passage from Sudan to East Africa, reconnecting them with themselves and the memory of their deceased parents. Parts of Hidden Journey were filmed in Sudan during their escape, with additional footage captured in Rwanda and Qatar.
A short version of the film received a 2025 Spring Grant from the Doha Film Institute (DFI), with the project now being developed towards a feature-length release. It was also selected for the inaugural Safe Harbour pilot, a CineMart programme supporting at-risk and displaced filmmakers, where it won the New Impulse Award. Adil subsequently received the New Impulse Award for Hidden Journey at the IFFR Pro Awards 2026, the industry programme of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The release date for Hidden Journey has yet to be announced.
Director: Noura Adil Suliman
Screenwriter: Noura Adil, Duha Adil
Cast: Noura Adil and Duha Adil
Producer: Mohamed Elsadig
Production Company: ALZOGAG CO Limited
Runtime: 30 mins
Countries: Sudan, Rwanda, Qatar
Holy Eye
Holy Eye is a feature film written, produced and directed by Ibrahim Omar, marking his second feature project with Samir Issa and Osama Ayad as co-producers. Blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, the film follows Ibrahim, playing himself, as he helps Hassan, a blind critic who lost his sight at the age of 62, make his first film. Guided by sound, memory and Ibrahim’s words, Cairo is reimagined as their shared cinematic canvas.
Holy Eye is the second feature film project from the Sudan Film Institute and Al-Kalat Films. It is a co-production between Sudan, Egypt and Canada and was selected for the Sheffield DocFest MeetMarket in the UK, held in June 2026.
Director: Ibrahim Omar
Co-producers: Samir Essa (Bad Wasabi) and Osama Ayad
Countries of Production: Sudan, Egypt
Countries of Co-production: Canada
Returning Sands (2027)
From exile in Egypt, Ali Nour coordinates Sudan’s fight to keep heritage alive. With national memory under siege, Ali and his crew of brave volunteers do everything to safeguard Sudan’s future while maintaining its thread to the past. Through Ali’s work, the film documents emergency evacuations of museum collections under active threat, coordination between heritage workers inside Sudan and those in exile, and the extraordinary risks taken to safeguard archives, artefacts, and sacred sites.
More details to be confirmed soon. Returning Sands is expected to be released in late 2027.
Director: Aicha Cherif
Executive Producer: Basma Khalifa
Producers: Camilla Marchese Gonzalez, Paris Quetzal Sistilli, Yusef Bushara
Country: The UK and US
Runtime: 25 mins
Dialogue Language(s): English and Arabic (with subtitles)
Filming Locations: Egypt
No Life on Mars (2026)
No Life on Mars is an upcoming feature-length Sudanese documentary produced by the Idris Foundation, offering an intimate, ground-level look at Sudanese lives before and after the outbreak of war in April 2023.
Tracing displacement across borders and the difficult realities of what comes next, the film follows five protagonists from the final days of relative normality through their sudden flight, asking what “home” can mean when everything is lost in a single night.
Filmed across Sudan, Kenya and Spain, No Life on Mars moves beyond the headlines to reveal deeply human stories often lost beneath the weight of global crises. Through rare and intimate access, the documentary follows not the geography of displacement, but its emotional terrain.
No Life on Mars is expected to be released in 2026.
Director: Mohamed Chawky
Creator and Executive Producer: Imad Yassin
Country: UK
Production Company: Idris Foundation
Runtime: 61 mins
Dialogue Language(s): English and Arabic (with subtitles)
Filming Locations: Sudan, Kenya and Spain
The Messiah of Darfur
The Messiah of Darfur is a prominent novel by Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin that is being adapted into an animated feature film by director and producer Amjad Abu Alala.
Blending tragedy, resilience, human contradiction and folk magic, the film will use rotoscoping to create the appearance of a living, speaking painting, capturing the surreal and absurd cinematic qualities of the original story. Set in western Sudan, the film follows a charismatic figure who preaches like Jesus and gathers followers amid violence, war and the atrocities committed by the Janjaweed in Darfur.
More details are yet to be confirmed.
