How can the art of cinema be evaluated beyond mere sensory perception and immediate enjoyment on the basis of rational and perfection-oriented concepts derived from the philosophy of art and aesthetics? From the standpoint of Abu Nasr al-Farabi within the tradition of Islamic philosophy of art, artistic activity is not reducible to the provision of pleasure or aesthetic stimulus; rather, art functions as an educational and teleological instrument that serves reason, aids in the purification and cultivation of the soul, and contributes to the attainment of human felicity. In Farabi’s framework, beauty is therefore not simply a matter of sensory appeal but an expression of rational order, proportion, harmony, and purposiveness that correlates with the development of intellectual faculties and moral virtues. Cinema, by virtue of its multimodal, temporally extended, and technologically mediated nature, integrates visual imagery, auditory composition, temporal editing, performative embodiment, and narrative articulation in a manner that uniquely enables the communication and enactment of rational and ethical meanings. This article revisits Farabi’s philosophy of art with the explicit aim of formulating a theoretically robust and practically applicable evaluative framework for cinematic works grounded in the notion of ultimate perfection (al-kamāl al-ghā’ī). Methodologically, the study adopts an analytical–conceptual approach that reconstructs relevant Farabian principles—such as the teleology of art, the educative role of the arts within the virtuous polity (al-madīna al-fāḍila), the hierarchical ontology of the soul’s faculties, and the metaphysical schema privileging ascent toward the Active Intellect—and maps these principles onto the formal, semantic, and performative operations of film. The paper articulates a set of operational criteria that can be applied in film analysis and criticism, including formal coherence (the internal structural unity of image, sound, and temporal sequence), narrative purposiveness (the teleological directionality of plot, characterization, and dramatic arc), conceptual rationality (the extent to which thematic content invites sustained intellectual reflection), and ethical integration (the degree to which moral formation is built into the work’s semantic architecture rather than superficially appended). Importantly, the Farabian ethical dimension should not be mistaken for prescriptive didacticism, censorial imposition, or reductive moral propaganda; rather, it denotes an immanent functionality through which cinematic form and meaning co-constitute conditions for moral perception, deliberation, and gradual refinement of character and judgment among viewers. By elaborating how Farabi’s distinctions among the sensible, the imaginative, and the rational orders can be translated into analytic attention to cinematic devices—such as mise-en-scène, shot composition, montage rhythm, sound design, temporal modulation, and point of view—the article demonstrates practical hermeneutic moves for applying a Farabian evaluative lens across genres, cultural contexts, and historical periods. The proposed model is positioned in explicit contrast to dominant contemporary critical paradigms: unlike formalist approaches that limit assessment to aesthetic autonomy and structural innovation, and unlike psychoanalytic or ideological readings that privilege unconscious drives or socio-political determinants, the Farabian framework centers the relation between formal harmony, rational intelligibility, and ethical telos, thereby recovering an integrative normative criterion for evaluation. The paper further addresses epistemological and methodological challenges inherent in transplanting classical philosophical concepts into contemporary film theory, raising questions such as how to operationalize teleological criteria without collapsing into moralism, how to reconcile historical fidelity with theoretical innovation, and how to sustain normative assessment while remaining sensitive to pluralistic aesthetic practices. To meet these challenges the study proposes procedural safeguards and hermeneutic protocols, including incremental application of criteria, triangulated readings combining close formal analysis with contextual interpretation, and reflexive disclosure of evaluative commitments to minimize anachronism and ethnocentrism. Theoretically, the research contends that Farabi’s aesthetic and practical philosophy affords a substantive conceptual resource for bridging classical metaphysical accounts of perfection with modern concerns about medium specificity, spectator cognition, and ethical reception. In practical terms, the study supplies film scholars, critics, and educators with an evaluative vocabulary and procedural steps for assessing the degree to which particular films function as instruments of intellectual formation and moral cultivation, proposing analytic protocols for close reading, structural mapping, and ethical hermeneutics. Illustrative case study moves are suggested to show the model’s applicability—ranging from ethically complex narrative cinema to formally experimental works—indicating how the criteria might illuminate overlooked dimensions of narrative choice, formal arrangement, characterization, and ethical thematics without privileging any single national or stylistic tradition. Furthermore, the research situates its contribution within interdisciplinary conversations, demonstrating how a Farabian orientation can enrich debates in aesthetics, moral philosophy, film studies, and cultural theory by foregrounding teleology, virtue, and the educative capacities of artistic form. The study also acknowledges the limitations and boundary conditions for applying a Farabian evaluative model, including the contested plurality of contemporary ethical norms, heterogeneity of audience backgrounds, and the deliberate anti-teleological strategies of some avant-garde practices; consequently, it recommends a calibrated approach combining normative assessment with descriptive sensitivity. In pedagogical terms, the paper proposes that film studies curricula could incorporate Farabian-inspired modules to cultivate critical faculties and ethical imagination in students, using curated filmic case studies and scaffolded analytic exercises that demonstrate how cinematic techniques may be read for their capacity to stimulate reflective judgment and moral perception. Ultimately, this article outlines pathways for future research—comparative studies that situate Farabi’s evaluation within Aristotelian or Kantian frameworks, as well as collaborative projects between philosophers and filmmakers aimed at producing works that explicitly apply rational–moral criteria in their design and dramaturgy. The implications of adopting such a framework are manifold and reach beyond theoretical exposition into the domains of critical practice, cultural policy, and artistic production, because a Farabian evaluative orientation invites not only scholars but also critics, festival programmers, curators, funders, and filmmakers to consider how cinematic form might be intentionally designed to conduce to intellectual engagement and moral sensibility, prompting debates about the aims of cinematic institutions and the educative responsibilities of cultural infrastructures. Moreover, by articulating criteria that are both philosophically grounded and operationally specific, the framework can inform evaluative rubrics for film festivals, commissioning bodies, and academic syllabi, thereby creating institutional pathways through which the cultivation of reason and virtue via cinematic experience becomes an explicit objective of cultural programming and critical pedagogy. Such institutionalization, the study insists, should be pursued with caution and reflexivity—ensuring that normative aims do not ossify into censorship but rather function as guiding principles for fostering reflective viewership and aesthetically sophisticated productions; in this respect, the Farabian model aims to reorient cultural infrastructures toward nurturing capacities for deliberative judgment, ethical imagination, and sustained aesthetic appreciation. Finally, in a global moment characterized by the proliferation of digital media, algorithmic curation, and fragmented attention economies, reclaiming a philosophically informed conception of cinematic value is urgent, as it provides conceptual resources for resisting the reductive commodification of attention and for defending spaces in which audiences can be invited to deliberate, reflect, and grow intellectually and morally. In conclusion, the paper advances the claim that cinema, interpreted through the lens of Islamic philosophy of art, can be conceived as a rational–ethical art form whose evaluative metrics should integrate formal unity, conceptual depth, and ethical orientation, thereby positioning film not merely as entertainment or social representation but as a potential medium for intellectual formation and moral perfection in line with Farabi’s enduring philosophical vision.