Who we are and what we show.

Farcinema is an independent film curation program in the San Francisco Bay Area, run by Hanieh Khaleghian and Mohsen Hejrati. We pick new Middle Eastern films that premiere at Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Sundance, Tribeca, Locarno, and Rotterdam, and we bring them to a screen here. Most of these films win prizes, tour the festivals, and then never get a release in the United States.

We want more people to see this cinema. The Middle East has a deep film culture and a new generation of directors making work that is personal, funny, angry, and often made at real risk. It deserves an audience beyond the festival circuit, and a room where people can talk about it afterward.

A Farcinema night is the film, a short introduction, and, whenever we can manage it, the director on stage for questions. We started in April 2025 at The New Parkway Theater in Oakland. 9 films later,4 of those nights have had the filmmaker in the room. This October we take a full day of films to YBCA in San Francisco.

Announcements go out on our WhatsApp group. Tickets for our own screenings are on Luma.