In his essay “New Realism in Arab Cinema,” Tunisian filmmaker Nouri Bouzid contends that the Arab defeat in the June 1967 war with Israel shattered the illusions of nationalistic slogans and military regimes, “awaken[ing] the Arabs from their dreaming” (242). Against this “backdrop of failure and disintegration,” Arab filmmakers arose to reshape understandings of realism in the wake of political defeat (242). This presentation traces the evolving perceptions of realism in Arab cinema from the 1960s-80s and the central space that the Palestinian “question” occupies within these debates. Defining events like Algerian Independence catalyzed a wave of militant cinema which countered the conventions of bourgeois Egyptian film productions. This genre of political film, exemplified by works like Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966), was defined by its engagement with anti-colonialism and social realism. The aftermath of June 1967 reshaped the political imaginary, compelling Arab filmmakers to experiment with a counter-cinema capable of conveying the realities of this postwar moment. “New Realism” emerges as an aesthetic and political tool to confront the disillusionment of political failure. This presentation examines different experiments with “New Realism,” exploring how Arab filmmakers countered tropes that predominated state-sponsored, anti-colonial cinema. The methodological focus of this presentation relies on the analysis of film manifestos and close visual reading of my case studies. Anglophone scholarship on anti-colonial cinema primarily spotlights Latin America, Europe, and the legacies of May ’68 as the focal points of this era, however, this presentation widens the field’s scope to emphasize Arab perspectives on realism, decolonization, and political cinema. Additionally, it advocates for re-centering Palestine in historical engagements with political cinema and the anti-colonial century, particularly as Palestinian life and sovereignty remains under grave threat.