8 months ago
NAAS’ second Research & Curatorial Fellowship is organized as a program supporting researchers, curators, and cultural practitioners engaging critically with cinema, media, and visual culture across the Arabic-speaking region and its diasporas. It creates space for sustained, independent inquiry rooted in critical engagement and collective exchange.
Cycle 2 invites projects that rethink inherited narratives, surface overlooked materials, and explore new modes of cultural participation. Fellows are supported in developing research that culminates in a public-facing outcome—whether through programming, publishing, or other experimental formats.
The fellow’s projects delve into a variety of underexplored themes, from Amazigh cinematic heritage and diasporic archives in Belgium to the spectre of communism in Egyptian cinema and the politics of film translation.
Over the coming months, they will embark on a journey of intensive research and collective exchange, starting with an in-person colloquium in Egypt this December and concluding with public programs in mid-2026.
The final review was guided by a committee of three distinguished experts, Dr. Alia Rayyan, Jihan el Tahri and Mohanad Yaqubi.
They sought to form a cohort with interests and perspectives that complement one another. Four researchers were chosen from a highly competitive pool of 276 applications. In a joint statement, the committee reflected on the selection process:
The number of the applications and its quality reflect an eager necessity of dealing with films and visual culture outside of the traditional industry order of producers and consumers, directors and audiences, indicating a growing understanding of alternative, communal and fair practices that can contribute to the act of watching as a form of art.
The richness and rigor of the proposals made the selection process highly competitive, and the committee wishes to recognize the remarkable effort and imagination that applicants invested in their submissions.
In reaching our decision, the committee reflected carefully on the originality of each project, its feasibility within the framework of the fellowship, and the contribution it could make to broader conversations around film history, memory, and cultural practice. Equal attention was given to ensuring methodological variety as well as the potential for dialogue and exchange among the cohort.
The fellowship is designed not only to support individual research trajectories but also to encourage a collective journey of shared reflection, peer-to-peer feedback, and experimentation. The selected fellows reflect this spirit of collaboration and will engage with one another as much as with the mentors and broader NAAS community.
We are delighted to introduce you to the four 2025/2026 fellows and their projects:
Amel Moyersoen
Researcher, programmer and visual artist
Project Title:
Archival Practices in the Diaspora - Migrant Cinema in Belgium 70s and 80s
Mahammad Hoogla-Kalfat
Writer, film curator/programmer, copy editor and translator
Project Title:
El cadre: Egyptian cinema and the spectre of communism
Nour Ouayda
Filmmaker and film programmer
Project Title:
Complicity and Conspiracy in Film Translation
Omar Idtnaine
Independent researcher, art curator and cultural analyst
Project Title:
Amazigh cinema in Morocco: Archival recovery as counter-historiography
The fellowship began in December 2025 with an in-person colloquium in Egypt, guided by mentor Omar Berrada. Writer and curator, Berrada explores the politics of translation and cultural memory in North African literature and film, offering a foundational perspective for the cohort's work.
Mentor Omar Berrada (right) and fellow Amel Moyersoen (left) © NAAS
The first day of the colloquium took place at Cimatheque- Alternative Film Center in Downtown Cairo. Each fellow presented a filmic or archival object as an entry point into their research, followed by group feedback sessions that opened new conceptual threads, methodologies, and sensibilities. The cohort also drew inspiration from Cimatheque’s archival practices, and from the literary and cinematic legacy of Moroccan filmmaker Ahmed Bouanani, presented by Berrada, who has himself played an instrumental role in organizing, preserving, and publishing the Archives Bouanani.
The second part of the Colloquium unfolded at Wekalet Behna in Alexandria, where the team guided the fellows through their archival and exhibition work. The program culminated in collaborative mapping sessions and peer cross-readings, helping to crystallize the direction of the fellows’ research and public outputs.
A special thank you to the wonderful teams at Cimatheque and Wekalet Behna for hosting us and enriching the fellowship conversations with invaluable insight. We look forward to sharing the processes, questions, and public programs that emerge from this incredible group.
© NAAS
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