Arab cinema or Arabic cinema (Arabic: السينما العربية, romanized: al-sīnemā al-ʿArabīyah) refers to the film industry of the Arab world. Most productions come from Egyptian cinema.

The first screening of a motion picture in Egypt occurred in Alexandria in 1896 by the French Lumière Brothers. The Egyptian industry developed from silent movies to talkies, with musicals being the bulk of the productions in the 1930s and 1940s. Of the first Arab-produced films was the 1923 Egyptian film Barsoum Looking for a Job, and Laila, released in Egypt in 1927, while the first Arabic speaking film was Awlad El-Zawat, also released in Egypt in 1932. Studio Misr, founded in 1935, was the first national studio of its kind in the Arab world. The period from the late 1940s to 1960s has been described as "the golden age of Arab cinema", as Arab actors from across the Middle East headed to stardom in Cairo. During this period, notable actors included Hind Rostom, Mahmoud el-Meliguy, Anwar Wagdi, Feyrouz and Soad Hosny. In the 1950s, Egypt's cinema industry was the world's third largest. In 1952, the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema Festival was founded to become the first annual film festival in the Arab World. In 1976, the Cairo International Film Festival was established, becoming the first International film festival to be held in the Arab world. Egypt has also contributed to the action genre with actors such as Youssef Mansour who became famous in the 1990s for his martial arts films.

The Egyptian-Jewish Frenkel brothers—Herschel, Shlomo, and David—are regarded as the pioneers of the art of animation in Egypt and the Arab world. Inspired by early American cartoons and silent comedies, they released their first animated film in 1936 titled Mafish Fayda. The first Arabic-language animation series was Mishgias Sawah (1979), released in Egypt, while the first feature-length Arab animated film is The Knight and the Princess, also released in Egypt in 2019. The first television drama in the Arab world, Hareb Min el-Ayyam, was broadcast from Egypt in 1962 during Ramadan. Often called the era of New Arab Cinema, during the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the influence of Italian realism and the response to political upheavals combined to create a body of independent Arab films that included traces of Arab melodrama. In 1972, the Kuwaiti drama film Bas ya Bahar became the first narrative feature film in the Gulf, and is considered one of the most important Arabic-language films in Arab filmmaking.

Egypt's domination of Arab cinema has been credited to its development of the dramatic arts, wealth of studios, experienced directors, technicians, film stars, singers and belly dancers. Since the 2010s, a "new wave" of Arab cinema has included films that explore links with genre cinema – including fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Since the Arab Spring, Arab films have also become more political. In what has been described as a "vibrant new era" of Arab cinema, the 2020s has seen a growth in the Saudi film industry, with some stability in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In 2023, the Egyptian 3D horror film Day 13, became the first Arabic 3D film. In the same year, the Saudi horror film, The Cello, became the first Arabic international horror film. Also that year, Sukkar, backed by the Saudi-owned production house MBC Group, was touted as the Arab world's first musical movie in the Western canon. Currently, the Middle East's largest cinema chain is Vox, owned by UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim Cinemas.

Arab cinema includes films from various countries and cultures of the Arab world and therefore does not have one form, structure, or style. Arab cinema mostly includes films made in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia; however, by definition, it also includes Bahrain, Djibouti, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. In its inception, Arab cinema was mostly an imitation of Western cinema. However, it has and continues to constantly change and evolve, as each country in the region has its own unique characteristics and identifiable brand of cinema.

Egypt, in particular, is a pioneer among Arab countries in the field of cinema. A sustained film industry was able to emerge in Egypt when other parts of the Arab world had only been able to sporadically produce feature-length films due to limited financing. As such, Arabic cinema is dominated by films from Egypt, where three quarters of all Arab movies are produced. According to film critic and historian Roy Armes, Lebanese cinema is the only other cinema in the Arabic-speaking region that could amount to a national cinema.

While Egyptian and Lebanese films have a long history of production, most other Arab countries did not witness film production until after independence. Even at the end of the 20th century, most film productions in countries like Bahrain, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates are limited to television or short films.

Elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, film production was scarce until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when some filmmakers began to receive funding and financial assistance from state organizations. It was during the post-independence era, when Arab cinema in most countries started. Most films produced at that time were funded by the state and contained a nationalistic dimension. These films helped to advance certain social causes such as independence and other social, economic and political agendas.