![‘Happy Holidays’ Trailer: Scandar Copti Returns With A Powerful Portrait Of Palestinian Family Life In Israel [Exclusive]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20110036/Happy-Holidays-Directed-by-Scandar-Copti.jpg "‘Happy Holidays’ Trailer: Scandar Copti Returns With A Powerful Portrait Of Palestinian Family Life In Israel [Exclusive]")
In filmmaker Scandar Copti’s luminous new film “Happy Holidays,” celebration and crisis share the same table. The first trailer for the Venice Film Festival prize-winner — which also swept top honors at Marrakech and Thessaloniki — teases an intimate, volatile portrait of Palestinian family life in Israel. Following his Oscar-nominated debut “Ajami,” Copti returns with another layered exploration of identity, belonging, and the fragile balance between tradition and autonomy.
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The drama follows Fifi, a young university student in Jerusalem whose newfound independence comes under threat after a car accident, forcing her to confront her conservative family back home in Haifa. Her brother Rami faces his own reckoning when his Jewish girlfriend, Shirley, reveals she’s pregnant. As their mother, Hanan, plans a wedding and hides mounting debts, Copti unspools a quietly explosive story of faith, family, and survival in a fractured society.
Winner of the Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay at the 81st Venice Film Festival (2024), “Happy Holidays” also earned the Étoile d’Or (Golden Star) for Best Film at the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival (2024) and the Theo Angelopoulos Golden Alexander for Best Feature Film at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2024). The film was further nominated for the Gold Hugo for New Directors at the Chicago International Film Festival, continuing its acclaimed international run.
Led by a cast of mostly non-professional actors, “Happy Holidays” captures the tensions and tenderness of modern Palestinian life through Copti’s clear-eyed realism and poetic restraint. The filmmaker threads together stories of autonomy, faith, and belonging, crafting a deeply humane mosaic of family and fractured identity.
Produced by Nicolas Eschbach of Indie Sales and distributed in North America by Film Movement, “Happy Holidays” opens in theaters beginning December 5 before expanding nationwide and to digital platforms in 2025. “Though he’s just at the beginning of his filmmaking career, Scandar has shown an ability to create characters that portray Israeli and Palestinian life in an authentic and unforgettable manner,” said Michael Rosenberg, president of Film Movement. “At a time when all eyes are on the region, ‘Happy Holidays’ opens a window into a world audiences rarely have the opportunity to see.”
Check out the first poster and trailer for “Happy Holidays,” which we present exclusively, below.
![‘Happy Holidays’ Trailer: Scandar Copti Returns With A Powerful Portrait Of Palestinian Family Life In Israel [Exclusive]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/20110539/happy-holidays_poster-691x1024.jpg)
Edward Davis is a senior film journalist and longtime contributor to The Playlist. Davis covers the full breadth of cinema — from major studio releases to independent and international film.
