Egyptian critic Ahmed Shawky chairs jury of International Federation of Film Critics in 75th Cannes Film Festival

CAIRO – 27 April 2022: The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) announced the Critics’ Jury for the 75th Cannes Film Festival, which will be held on May 17 to May 28. The jury is headed by the Egyptian critic Ahmed Shawky, and includes nine members from different continents of the world.

Critics Mariola Wiktor from Poland, Emanuel Levy from the United States,  Simone Sorana from Italy, Jihan Bougrain from Morocco, Bidan Ribeiro from Bangladesh, and Youssoufa Halidou Haruna from Niger will all participate in the jury, in addition to the two French critics, Nathalie Chevalier and Magali van Reeth.

This jury is the oldest and largest, and is organized by the International Federation of Film Critics, the international organization that dates back to 1925 and brings together film critics from all over the world.

Its system of operation during the Cannes Film Festival is based on dividing the nine members into three sub-committees, each awarding a different prize.

This is the first time an Egyptian critic chairs this prestigious committee, but it is not the first time an Egyptian critic participates in the jury.

Since the establishment of the Egyptian Film Critics Association and its accession to the International Federation Of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), many Egyptian critics have participated as members of the committee, including Samir Farid, Youssef Sharif Rizkallah, Fawzi Suleiman, Amir Al-Omari, Ahmed Atef, Safaa El-Leithi, and Ramy Abdel Razek.

The FIPRESCI Award is the oldest in the history of Cannes Film Festival, having been launched with the festival's first edition in 1946. It continued as an annual tradition through which the International Federation of Film Critics shed light on the most important international cinematic experiences.

Throughout the festival's history, many legends of the film industry have won the FIPRESCI Award, including Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Francis Ford Coppola, among others.