This paper investigates the constitution of the Arab Network for Human Rights Film Festivals (hereafter ANHAR) and the implications of the local mediation of international human rights economies for the Arab regional cinema production more broadly. Established in 2015 by the Jordan-based collective of thinkers and workers Ma3mal 612 Think Factory, ANHAR currently counts nine members, with human rights film festivals in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritania, Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine, the Sudan and Syria. Here I follow Meg McLagan’s focus on the “circulatory matrix” of human rights advocacy “out of which human rights claims are generated and through which they travel” (McLagan 2006, 192). I examine how ANHAR establishes a multi-faceted platform dedicated to the exchange between activists and filmmakers, the promotion of co-production, and the support of advocacy campaigns. I argue that the creation of a regional network alongside European formations such as the Human Rights Film Network is best suited to local human rights needs. Moreover, it enhances Arab cinematic production at large. In effect, by bridging various local organizations dedicated to supporting independent productions like SEMAT (Egypt) and Bidayyat (Lebanon) with film festivals in isolated areas (as in Gaza), ANHAR develops a communication infrastructure (McLagan 2006) for regional human rights, which simultaneously aims to benefit the development of a regional film industry more broadly. I conclude that the regional redefinition of human rights cinema includes the necessity of infrastructure, that is to say, the very possibility to produce human rights films. This research is based on fieldwork conducted at the Jordan-based Karama Human Rights Film Festival, interviews of ANHAR and HRFN members, and discursive analyses of the promotional material of the two networks and their key festivals. As a result, I demonstrate that the establishment of a separate Arab network not only readjusts human rights claims to the regional needs, but doing so also reconfigures the promotion of human rights around the development of adequate economic infrastructures and platforms for both human rights advocacy and Arab independent cinema production.