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From the heart of the magical
resort town of El Gouna, El Gouna Film Festival officially closed its
5th edition in a glamorous closing ceremony. Gracing the 5th edition
of GFF’s red carpet was a horde of Egyptian, regional, and international stars and starlets, filmmakers, and an assortment of industry professionals, who were dressed to the nines in arrays of colorful fabrics and lovely silhouettes.
Following the red carpet, GFF’s closing ceremony began with an introduction by TV personality Jasmine Taha.
Engineer Samih Sawiris, Founder of El Gouna, and Elgouna Film Festival gave a speech about the ambitions that GFF holds.
Sawiris also thanked the Ministry of Health and Population for supporting GFF in the 5th edition –an experience that was an essential factor of GFF’s success.
Highlighting the fire breakout at the
Festival Plaza one day before the festival, El Gouna Founder Engineer
Samih Sawiris said: “GFF’s team members have perfectly handled the situation.”
He also extended his gratitude to the workers and the crew security forces and the Red Sea Governorate’s Civil Protective Forces. Sawiris invited representatives of those who were behind handling the situation in no time to the stage where the audience heartily gave them aro standing applause.
In his speech presenting the Career Achivement Award for the renowned Palestinian actor, director Mohamed Bakri, GFF Director Intishal Al Timimi said that although all the challenges it faced the 5th edition was the most special round. He praised all the festival teamwork including GFF Co- Founder and Chief Operating Officer Bushra Rozza, and GFF Executive Director Amir Ramsis, and the former festival’s CEO Amr Mansi, in addition to all the GFF members. Al Timimi announced that the 6th edition of the GFF will take place at october, 21, 2022.
The closing ceremony was held at El
Gouna Conference and Culture Center (GCCC), in which the winning films were announced and received the GFF’s cash prizes, which amounted up to US $244,000.
Egyptian actress Elham Shahin
took the stage to present a video comemorating the legacy of renowned late screenwriter Wahid Hamed, which contained expressions of gratitude from a number of stars and directors who worked with him, such as Egyptian superstar Youssra, and directors Marwan Hamed, Mohamed Yassin, and Tamer Mohsen who
spoke about what makes Hamed’s writing stand out as well as his iconic characters along with clips from his most famed works.
Additionally, the awards for GFF’s competitive sections were announced:
Feature Narrative Competition
El Gouna Golden Star for Narrative Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $50,000) went to The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic by Teemu Nikki.
El Gouna Silver Star for Narrative Film
(Trophy, Certificate, and US $25,000) went to Sundown by Michel Franco.
El Gouna Bronze Star for Narrative Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $15,000) went to Captain Volkonogov Escaped by Aleksey Chupov and Natalya Merkulova.
El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Narrative Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $20,000) went to Feathers by Omar El Zohairy.
El Gouna Star for the Best Actor (Trophy and Certificate) went to Petri Poikolainen for his role in The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic.
El Gouna Star for the Best Actress (Trophy and Certificate) went to Maya Vanderbeque for her role in Playground.
Feature Documentary Competition
El Gouna Golden Star for Documentary Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $30,000) went to Life of Ivanna by Renato Borrayo Serrano.
El Gouna Silver Star for Documentary Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $15,000) went to Ostrov – Lost Island by Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop.
El Gouna Bronze Star for Documentary Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $7,500) went to Sabaya by Hogir Hirori.
El Gouna Star for the Best Arab Documentary Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $10,000) went to Captains of Za’atari by Ali El Arabi.
Short Film Competition
El Gouna Golden Star for Short Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $15,000) went to Katia by Andrey Natotcinskiy.
El Gouna Silver Star for Short Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $7,500) went to Holy Son by Aliosha Massine.
El Gouna Bronze Star for Short Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $4,000) went to On Solid Ground by Jela Hasler.
El Gouna Star for Best Arab Short Film (Trophy, Certificate, and US $5,000) went to CAI-BER by Ahmed Abdelsalam.
Cinema for Humanity Audience Award
Given by GFF’s audience to a film that exemplifies humanitarian themes, the award (Trophy, Certificate, and US $20,000) was presented by Engineer Naguib Sawiris, El Gouna Film Festival Founder, to Ostrov – Lost Island by Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop.
El Gouna Green Star Award
Given by GFF to films that highlight environmental issues, this award (El Gouna Green Star, Certificate, and US $10,000) went to Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl.
In collaboration with Recycle for Tomorrow initiative, El Gouna
Green Star Award was presented by Mohamed Shelbaya, CEO of PepsiCo Egypt.
NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film went to Captain Volkonogov Escaped by Aleksey Chupov and Natalya Merkulova.
Additionally, the NETPAC Award jury gave a Special Mention to Once Upon a Time in Calcutta by Aditya Vikram Sengupta.
The FIPRESCI Award for Best Debut Film went to Costa Brava, Lebanon by Mounia Akl.
Last but not least, the Khaled Bichara Award for Egyptian Independent Filmmakers went to Adel by Dina Eleleimy. The award was presented by Galal Khaled Bichara who gave a
Although
all the challenges
it faced, the 5th edition was the most special round
speech about how he hopes his late father was proud of him.
The award’s aim is to connect filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts in the spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. The festival is committed to the discovery of new voices and strives to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in the Arab world, especially through its industry hub CineGouna Platform.
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