diff --git a/datafusion/physical-plan/src/joins/hash_join/inlist_builder.rs b/datafusion/physical-plan/src/joins/hash_join/inlist_builder.rs
index 7dccc5b0ba7c..9bf59d9e333d 100644
--- a/datafusion/physical-plan/src/joins/hash_join/inlist_builder.rs
+++ b/datafusion/physical-plan/src/joins/hash_join/inlist_builder.rs
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
 use std::sync::Arc;
 
 use arrow::array::{ArrayRef, StructArray};
+use arrow::compute::cast;
 use arrow::datatypes::{Field, FieldRef, Fields};
-use arrow::downcast_dictionary_array;
 use arrow_schema::DataType;
 use datafusion_common::Result;
 
@@ -33,15 +33,16 @@ pub(super) fn build_struct_fields(data_types: &[DataType]) -> Result<Fields> {
         .collect()
 }
 
-/// Flattens dictionary-encoded arrays to their underlying value arrays.
+/// Casts dictionary-encoded arrays to their underlying value type, preserving row count.
 /// Non-dictionary arrays are returned as-is.
-fn flatten_dictionary_array(array: &ArrayRef) -> ArrayRef {
-    downcast_dictionary_array! {
-        array => {
+fn flatten_dictionary_array(array: &ArrayRef) -> Result<ArrayRef> {
+    match array.data_type() {
+        DataType::Dictionary(_, value_type) => {
+            let casted = cast(array, value_type)?;
             // Recursively flatten in case of nested dictionaries
-            flatten_dictionary_array(array.values())
+            flatten_dictionary_array(&casted)
         }
-        _ => Arc::clone(array)
+        _ => Ok(Arc::clone(array)),
     }
 }
 
@@ -68,7 +69,7 @@ pub(super) fn build_struct_inlist_values(
     let flattened_arrays: Vec<ArrayRef> = join_key_arrays
         .iter()
         .map(flatten_dictionary_array)
-        .collect();
+        .collect::<Result<Vec<_>>>()?;
 
     // Build the source array/struct
     let source_array: ArrayRef = if flattened_arrays.len() == 1 {
@@ -99,7 +100,9 @@ pub(super) fn build_struct_inlist_values(
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
-    use arrow::array::{Int32Array, StringArray};
+    use arrow::array::{
+        DictionaryArray, Int8Array, Int32Array, StringArray, StringDictionaryBuilder,
+    };
     use arrow_schema::DataType;
     use std::sync::Arc;
 
@@ -130,4 +133,41 @@ mod tests {
             )
         );
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_build_multi_column_inlist_with_dictionary() {
+        let mut builder = StringDictionaryBuilder::<arrow::datatypes::Int8Type>::new();
+        builder.append_value("foo");
+        builder.append_value("foo");
+        builder.append_value("foo");
+        let dict_array = Arc::new(builder.finish()) as ArrayRef;
+
+        let int_array = Arc::new(Int32Array::from(vec![1, 2, 3])) as ArrayRef;
+
+        let result = build_struct_inlist_values(&[dict_array, int_array])
+            .unwrap()
+            .unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(result.len(), 3);
+        assert_eq!(
+            *result.data_type(),
+            DataType::Struct(
+                build_struct_fields(&[DataType::Utf8, DataType::Int32]).unwrap()
+            )
+        );
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_build_single_column_dictionary_inlist() {
+        let keys = Int8Array::from(vec![0i8, 0, 0]);
+        let values = Arc::new(StringArray::from(vec!["foo"]));
+        let dict_array = Arc::new(DictionaryArray::new(keys, values)) as ArrayRef;
+
+        let result = build_struct_inlist_values(std::slice::from_ref(&dict_array))
+            .unwrap()
+            .unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(result.len(), 3);
+        assert_eq!(*result.data_type(), DataType::Utf8);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/datafusion/sqllogictest/test_files/joins.slt b/datafusion/sqllogictest/test_files/joins.slt
index 2fb544a638d6..282d7c374bdd 100644
--- a/datafusion/sqllogictest/test_files/joins.slt
+++ b/datafusion/sqllogictest/test_files/joins.slt
@@ -5290,3 +5290,31 @@ DROP TABLE empty_proj_left;
 
 statement count 0
 DROP TABLE empty_proj_right;
+
+# Issue #20437: HashJoin panic with dictionary-encoded columns in multi-key joins
+# https://github.com/apache/datafusion/issues/20437
+
+statement ok
+CREATE TABLE issue_20437_small AS
+SELECT id, arrow_cast(region, 'Dictionary(Int32, Utf8)') AS region
+FROM (VALUES (1, 'west'), (2, 'west')) AS t(id, region);
+
+statement ok
+CREATE TABLE issue_20437_large AS
+SELECT id, region, value
+FROM (VALUES (1, 'west', 100), (2, 'west', 200), (3, 'east', 300)) AS t(id, region, value);
+
+query ITI
+SELECT s.id, s.region, l.value
+FROM issue_20437_small s
+JOIN issue_20437_large l ON s.id = l.id AND s.region = l.region
+ORDER BY s.id;
+----
+1 west 100
+2 west 200
+
+statement count 0
+DROP TABLE issue_20437_small;
+
+statement count 0
+DROP TABLE issue_20437_large;