El Gouna Film Festival: Egypt’s Premier Celebration of Cinema

Celebrating its fifth anniversary as one of the leading festivals in the Middle East and North Africa region, El Gouna Film Festival seeks to complete its mission to support and promote cinema in the Middle East by announcing the dates of its fifth session, which will take place from 14-22 October/ October 2021 in El Gouna.
In its plans for the fifth session, the festival relies on the same approach that it has adopted in its previous sessions; and based its success on the tremendous encouragement it receives from filmmakers, Arab and international film professionals, and its audience, media professionals, and critics.
The fourth edition of the festival (2020) was the first public event held at the El Gouna Convention and Culture Center, the festival’s new home and its activities.
In the fifth session, the festival will host the opening and closing ceremonies, red carpet events, and premieres, in addition to networking events. The closing ceremony of the CineGouna platform and the presentation of a variety of international films that the festival is always keen to attract through the programming team’s tour of film festivals held throughout the year or those that the festival is keen on On possession of its first international and global offerings.
For his part, Eng. Samih Sawiris, the founder of El Gouna and Chairman of Orascom Development Holding, expressed his happiness with success achieved by the El Gouna Film Festival over the past years, especially the year 2020, which witnessed the first hosting of the festival in El Gouna Convention and Culture Center. Samih added, “The year 2020 was full of challenges, but I am pleased that despite all the obstacles, we were able to deliver on our promise to host the fourth edition of the festival at El Gouna Convention and Culture Centre. I can’t believe we are already celebrating five years of our festival. I am very proud of the development that has been made. Since the opening of the festival, El Gouna has seen it become a leading destination and platform for the arts and a hub for cultural exchange in the Middle East.”

the director of the festival, Entisal Al-Tamimi, striving towards developing the festival’s organizational effort, strengthening the work team to improve its activities, intensifying the organizational experience of the festival, working on expanding its activities, deepening its successes, and creating the atmosphere for launching new initiatives and ideas.” He added, “While we look forward to our fifth session.” We promise you that we are working hard to complement our efforts and contributions to the development of cinema regionally and globally.”
In line with the determinants of the epidemic and taking into account social distancing measures, the festival was forced to reduce its film screening program during the fourth session to be limited to 63 films. And 17 in the official selection section outside the competition, in addition to two films in the special screenings section.
The jury of the fourth session included a selection of the most influential and distinguished filmmakers, including the Egyptian actor, writer, and producer Asser Yassin, the Sudanese director and screenwriter Amjad Abu Al-Ala, the director and producer Peter Weber, the distinguished Egyptian director and producer Marianne Khoury and the famous Indian actor Ali Fazal, in addition to the Syrian actress Kinda Alloush. And Tunisian director Raja Ammari.
Jamila Zpanic’s “Where Are You Going ” fiction won the Gold Star for the Feature Film Competition, Tiboho Edkins’ “Days of Cannibals” fiction won the Documentary Gold, Jasmin Trinca’s “Becoming My Mother” fiction won the Short Film Award, and the Short Films Gold Award. The Man Who Sold His Back” to Kawthar Ben Hania, with the Best Arab Feature Film, and “200 Meters” by Amin Nayfeh, with the Cinema for Humanity award, in addition to various other prizes distributed to the winning films, with a total value of $224,000.
In the last session, the “Cinema in Concert” concert witnessed the screening of the restored version of Charlie Chaplin’s movie “The Boy” accompanied by a live orchestra led by Maestro Ahmed Al-Saeedi. The Creative Achievement Award went to distinguished actor Khaled El-Sawy, Egyptian landscape moderator Onsi Abu Seif, and French actor Gerard Depardieu. In contrast, the Omar Sharif award went to French-Moroccan actor Said Taghmaoui. His films and awards, as well as clips from his films and sketches of his designs.
The fourth session also witnessed the launch of the Khaled Bishara Award for independent Egyptian filmmakers, which aims to perpetuate the name of the late Khaled Bishara. The award was awarded to a project in development, “Hamlet from the Shack” by Ahmed Fawzy Saleh, and will be presented annually at the El Gouna Film Festival Awards.
El Gouna Film Festival:

One of the leading festivals in the Middle East, aiming to showcase a variety of films to a cinema-crazy audience, create better communication between cultures through the art of cinema, and connect filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts to foster a spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. In addition, the festival is committed to discovering new cinematic voices. It is exciting to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in the Arab world, primarily through its industry arm, the CineGouna Platform.