Drone filming in Lebanon is not something a crew can decide on the morning of a shoot. Flying a camera drone for a film needs permission from the Lebanese Army, the application asks for details about the aircraft and the operator, and it takes at least a week once every document is in. Plan the aerial shots at the same time as the rest of the production, not after it.
We are Fine Line Production, a production house in Hamra, Beirut, working since 2017. A note on how we handle this, so there is no confusion later: we do not run an in-house drone department. Aerial filming is provided through the drone operators we work with. This guide explains the rules as the Army publishes them, what aerial footage is actually good for, and when it is better left out.
Do you need a permit to fly a drone in Lebanon?
For filming, yes. In a notice from March 2018, the Lebanese Army Command's Directorate of Orientation warned owners of remote-controlled drones about flying them over Lebanese territory without a permit issued by the Directorate, particularly near military posts and critical or vital locations. The same notice says an unpermitted drone can be brought down and its operator prosecuted. The Army's warning is published on its website.
That is a good reason to treat the permit as part of the production, not as a formality. A drone shot with no permission behind it can cost a crew its aircraft, and it can put the client's name next to a legal problem.
What does the Army's drone filming permit ask for?
The Directorate of Orientation lists a separate request for filming with a small aircraft (the page is in Arabic). According to that page, the application includes:
- A signed written request stating the purpose of the permit.
- The type and serial number of the aircraft and of the camera.
- A schedule of the filming locations and times.
- A contact phone number.
- An authorization from the Air Force for using the aircraft.
- A copy of the operator's identity card, and for a foreign operator a copy of the passport with the entry stamp.
- A scanned copy of the aircraft showing its serial number.
The page gives the processing time as at least one week from the date the request is submitted with all documents. It does not mention a fee. It does not set out the Air Force step in detail, so ask the operator you hire how that authorization is obtained and how long it takes, and add that time to your schedule.
This is a different request from the permit for the film itself. If you are also shooting on the ground, the commercial filming permit has its own list, which we walk through in our guide to filming in Lebanon. The two are separate applications, so check both.
Can the rules change on short notice?
Yes. On 21 February 2025 the Army's Directorate of Orientation announced that drone photography licenses in the Beirut area and its surroundings were suspended from 22 February at 18:00 until 23 February at 18:00. We cite it only as an example: drone licensing can be paused for a window of time, and a shoot date can move because of it. Keep a spare day where you can.
The picture is also not fully settled outside the Army. In October 2025 the digital rights organization SMEX reported that Lebanon lacks clear, explicit drone legislation, and described one municipality requiring its own written permission, a practice a legal specialist quoted in the article said municipalities have no authority to impose. Read the SMEX article for that discussion. We have not verified a civil aviation rule in this guide, so we do not state one. Before you book, check the current official pages, or ask your local partner to.
What does aerial footage add to a film?
A drone shot is useful when the question is about scale or place: where something sits, how big it is, how one place relates to another. Our services page describes aerial work as a regular part of how we cover locations, events and architecture.
Used well, it gives the viewer a sense of geography that a ground-level camera cannot. Used as decoration, it adds a generic establishing shot that could belong to any film. If you cannot say in one sentence what the aerial shot tells the audience, it probably does not belong in the edit.
A worked example: the Lebanese wine documentary
Our Lebanese wine documentary for USAID's Trade and Investment Facilitation (TIF) Activity is a good example of how drone shots are used in Lebanon. It traces the history and culture of Lebanese wine across wineries in the Bekaa, South Lebanon, North Lebanon and Mount Lebanon, and it uses a lot of aerial footage, because the story is about land: vineyards, slopes and how far apart the regions sit.
Filming took around a month, moving around the country. The aerial shots were taken by drone operators we hired for the shoot, flying a DJI Mavic 3 Pro. Everything that was not aerial was shot by our own crew on a Canon C300 Mark II mounted on a gimbal, so the ground-level movement and the aerial movement could be cut together.
That split is the model we describe above, and it applies to permits too. The drone operators obtained every permit the drone flights needed. Our own team prepared and obtained the general filming permits from the Lebanese Army, the Internal Security Forces and the different municipalities where we filmed. The production team also decided where each aerial shot went and what it should tell the viewer. Because the shoot ran for weeks across four regions, the aerial shots were planned location by location, not added at the end. For how a film like this is structured from brief to delivery, see how a documentary gets made in Lebanon.
For architecture, a drone shows a building in its surroundings, while the interior and detail work is done on the ground. Our Davinci Tower by Pagani launch film follows a tower's architecture, design and interiors. It was filmed on location in Dubai and is not an aerial piece; we mention it only as an architecture example. More of our event and location work is on the activations page.
When should you not use a drone?
- Active or sensitive sites. On our humanitarian demining film in Mount Lebanon, the camera stayed on cleared ground and there was no drone over an active site. Read how that shaped the look in the demining case study, and watch the film.
- Near military posts and critical locations. The Army's own warning singles these out. If your location is close to one, ask the Army through the permit route before you plan the shot.
- Interviews and people-led scenes. A drone adds noise and distance. The story is in the faces, so the camera belongs on the ground.
- When the schedule has no slack. With a processing time of at least a week and the chance of a suspension, a drone shot is the first thing to cut from a tight timeline.
How do you hire a drone operator for a shoot in Beirut?
Ask the questions that the permit itself raises:
- Who submits the permit request, and have they done it for a shoot like yours?
- Can they give the type and serial number of the aircraft and the camera, and the operator's identity details, for the application?
- How is the Air Force authorization obtained, and how long does it take?
- What happens to your shoot date if a permit is suspended or delayed?
- Who owns the footage, in what format is it delivered, and when?
Get the answers in writing before you confirm a shoot date. If you are bringing a crew from abroad, see our guide to what a film fixer does in Lebanon. If the shoot is for a regional client, see shooting for the Gulf from Beirut. Our services page lists aerial work alongside the rest of the production range.
Planning aerial shots into your brief
Write the aerial shots into the brief with a place and a purpose for each. The permit request asks for a schedule of locations and times, so a vague plan makes for a weak application, and a late change of location may need new paperwork; confirm that with the operator. Allow at least a week for the Army, more if the Air Force authorization is not yet in hand, and keep a backup day.
If you are not sure whether your project needs aerial footage at all, send us the brief and we will say so honestly. Sometimes the answer is no.
Drone footage can lift a film when it is planned early, permitted properly and used for a reason. If you want help scoping aerial filming as part of a production in Lebanon, tell us about the project.