His career spans more than four decades, during which he has written, produced and directed award-winning and influential feature films, short films and documentaries. He also edited seven books on film theory. He is considered to be a seminal member of the "new Arab cinema", which began to flourish in the 1970s. Smihi has taught and lectured at Paris 8 University and at UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies. He has traveled extensively in Greece, France, Italy and in the Middle East, and has lived and worked in Egypt. Today, he divides his time between Tangier and Paris. Pacific Film Archive/Berkeley, Block Cinema/Chicago and the Tate Modern/London organised a retrospective of his films in 2013 and 2014.