In 2011, Rani Massalha directed the short film Elvis of Nazareth, which won the Unifrance Jury Prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The film was acquired by Canal+ and BBC Arabic. In 2013, Rani directed and co-produced his first feature film, Giraffada, with Saleh Bakri, Laure de Clermont, and Roschdy Zem. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, embarked on an international tour, and had an official screening at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Produced by Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre (MACT Productions), it was distributed in France by Pyramide in 2014. In 2022, the film was bought by Netflix.

Rani also co-founded Les Films du Tambour with Marie Legrand in 2014. The production company has produced films by international filmmakers, all of which have screened at film festivals and been distributed in France and worldwide (including Sibel (2018) by Cagla Zenciri, Notre Dame du Nil (2019) by Atiq Rahimi, Dégradé (2015) and Gaza Mon Amour (2020) by Arab and Tarzan Nasser, among others).