Thirteen in Gaza will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, bringing Palestinian filmmaker Hosam Abu Dan’s debut feature to global audiences.
TORONTO: Palestinian filmmaker Hosam Abu Dan is taking his first narrative feature to one of the world’s biggest film festivals, with Thirteen in Gaza set to make its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
Selected for TIFF’s Centrepiece programme, the 77-minute Arabic-language drama follows 13-year-old Raghad and her father as they navigate everyday life after losing their home and most of their family members.
They find themselves living in a crowded displacement camp, where Raghad is also dealing with the challenges of growing up. Privacy, safety and the familiar comforts of childhood have disappeared, while her father tries to protect her and hold their lives together.
At its heart, the film focuses on the relationship between a parent and child and what happens to ordinary family life when everything around them changes.
What makes Thirteen in Gaza stand out?
The circumstances surrounding the production are as remarkable as the story itself.
The film was shot entirely inside Gaza with a local Palestinian cast and crew under extremely difficult conditions. Abu Dan has described it as his first feature film and an entirely Palestinian production.
Industry publication Screen Daily reports that it is the first fiction feature to be filmed entirely in Gaza in 12 years.
For Abu Dan, who is also an editor, the film marks his narrative feature directorial debut and gives him a major international platform through TIFF.
Thirteen in Gaza keeps its focus tightly on Raghad and her father rather than attempting to tell a sweeping story. That intimate approach allows the film to explore adolescence, grief, family relationships and the loss of privacy through the experiences of two central characters.
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When will the film screen at TIFF?
The world premiere is scheduled at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 2 in Toronto on September 15, 2026. Further screenings are scheduled for September 17 and September 20.
Its place in the Centrepiece programme puts the film alongside new work from filmmakers representing countries around the world.
MAD World, the international sales arm of Cairo-based MAD Solutions, has acquired worldwide sales rights to the film ahead of its Toronto debut, potentially giving it a route to audiences beyond the festival circuit.
For Thirteen in Gaza, Toronto could therefore be the beginning of a much wider international journey.
A world premiere at TIFF could significantly raise Abu Dan’s international profile and open opportunities for wider festival and theatrical distribution. It also gives a locally made Palestinian feature access to global film audiences, critics, distributors and industry decision-makers.
