The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival on March 11, 2019,[4] where it won the Documentary Feature Competition's Grand Jury and Audience Awards.

An economics student at the University of Aleppo when the uprising began in 2011, we watch as she falls in love, gives birth to her first daughter Sama and navigates motherhood all while the conflict begins to engulf the city.

The website's critical consensus reads, "As intimate as it is heartbreakingly resonant, For Sama powerfully distills the difficult choices faced by citizens of war-torn regions.

[9] Ian Freer of Empire, wrote "It will break your heart", and he further added, "For Sama powerfully mixes the personal and the political to thought-provoking, emotional ends.

[11] Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "[For Sama] The result is a series of deeply powerful images showing the human casualties of a war that most of us witnessed from our TV sets or computer screens, but that al-Kateab and her husband lived on a daily basis for many years".

[12] Guy Lodge of the Variety wrote, "This ragged, remarkable act of cinematic witnessing sees a young woman finding her voice – as an activist, as an artist and as a parent – above the crashing, whistling din of warfare.