Last year marked the premiere of the Kurdistan Film Commission (initially known as the Kurdistan Film Commission Slemani before a broadening of activities) on the global film stage at Cannes. The world’s biggest film festival marked the coming-out party for the commission of the small semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq under the office of Deputy Prime Minister H.E. Qubad Talabani, who is the president of the organization. This year, he, Bavi Yassin, founder and chair of the film commission, and her team are back at Cannes for an encore.

The mission of the commission, located in the cultural hotspot city of Slemani, is to empower Kurdish creatives through training and support, bring foreign creatives to Kurdistan and establish it as a filming destination, and to help bring the region’s stories to the world.

Recruitment for staff, in Slemani, also known as “Suli,” and elsewhere, has been in full swing. For Cannes 2026 , the team also packed some financial news.…