Cairo Film Festival Grants Ahmed Ezz The Faten Hamama Award for Excellence

 

Hussein Fahmy, head of the Cairo Film Festival, commented on honoring Ezz, saying: “Ahmed Ezz will receive this award in recognition of his distinguished cinematic career, as we are interested in encouraging artists who have presented a lot to Egyptian cinema, and we wish him success in what comes next.”

 

CIFF director Amir Ramses announced: “I am glad that an acclaimed artist like Ahmed will receive this award because of his success during the past years in building a great artistic career. Ezz has presented multiple genres of films different from those that used to top the box office, especially that comedies have been at the forefront of box office for so many years. Ezz was able to achieve great success, starting from his cooperation with director Sandra Nashat, moving to his work with the great director Sherif Arafa in more than one film, as well as the great director Marwan Hamed, and I truly believe that he is an acclaimed artist who deserves this award for sure.”

 

Ahmed Ezz said: “When Mr. Hussein Fahmy spoke to me about receiving the award from Cairo International Film Festival, I was very happy, because he is a great artist who I am personally one of his fans and he is my role model. I am honored to receive that award granted by the prestigious Cairo International Film Festival, in the presence of the great artist Hussein Fahmy.

 

Ezz continued his speech, saying: “Granting me this award is a message that approached me at the right time to encourage me to move forward in my career, because I really believe that I have not presented everything I dreamt of yet. I started my close relationship with CIFF since my early days as an actor, as I consider it to be a great opportunity to meet filmmakers, it’s a very important event that gives value to the artist as well as the cinema industry, and I hope that granting me this honor will be the beginning of a better career path that shall exceed what I have presented in cinema so far.”

 

Ahmed Ezz studied English at the Faculty of Arts at Ain Shams University, then worked in the hospitality field, after which he moved to fashion shows, and his interest in cinema began at a later stage, as his roles began to attract attention in films such as “Al Sharaf” by Sherif Shaaban, and “Kalam Al leel" directed by Enas El Degheidy.

 

But those roles did not satisfy his cinematic passion, until the real beginning came through “Mozakarat Moraheka” by Enas El-Deghaidy in 2001 which sparked strong waves of controversy at the time. On the other hand, it guaranteed Ezz the opportunity he needed to improve his cinematic career. In 2004 he presented 4 cinematic films, the most important of which is “Hob El Banat” by director Khaled Al-Hajar. Ezz won an award for Best Actor in supporting Role from The Tenth National Festival of Egyptian Cinema for his role in this movie. He also participated in “Sana Oula Nasb” with director Kamela Zekry and “Youm El Karama” with director Ali Abdel-Khaleq.

 

He presented his first leading role in "Mlaky Alexandria" in 2005 with director Sandra Nashat, which marked the beginning of a stage of cooperation with Nashat in several films, including " Masgoon Transit” in 2008. 

 

He also cooperated with director Amr Arafa in "El Shabah” movie for which he won Best Actor Award for the year 2007, and he also presented “Badal Faked” movie with director Ahmed Alaa El Deeb in 2009.

In 2011, Ezz presented  “365 Youm Saada” with the Lebanese director Saeed Al-Marouk in his first cinematic experience, and in 2012 Ezz presented “Al Maslaha” movie with director Sandra Nashat, after 5 years of their last movie together. He also presented “Helm Aziz” movie in which he returned to work with director Amr Arafa again, while in 2015 he presented “El Hafla” movie with director Ahmed Alaa El Deeb.

 

He also presented theee films with director Tarek Alarian which are  “Awlad Rizk” in 2015 and the second part of it in 2019 and “El Khaleya” and for his role in this movie, Ezz won the Best Actor Award at Arab Film Awards “Oscar” for the year 2018.

 

At the beginning of 2019, Ezz presented the movie “El Mamar” about the heroics of the War of Attrition, which was his first collaboration with the great director Sherif Arafa, and in 2021, he presented  “Al-Aref” movie with Ahmed Alaa El-Deeb, and he returned to cooperate again with “Arafa” through “El Gareema” movie in 2022, and in the same year he presented “Kira Wal Jinn” movie with director Marwan Hamed, in their first collaboration.

 

From 2019 to 2023, Ahmed Ezz presented five films in Egyptian cinema who garnered revenues amounted to 385 million LE which is a record that no Egyptian artist has reached during that period or in previous periods. Those 5 movies were, “El Mamar”, “Awlad Rizk 2”, “Al-Aref,” “ El Gareem” and “Kira Wal Jinn.”

 

Cairo International Film Festival is the oldest and most regular festival in Arab world and Africa, and it receives its rather unique nature as it’s the only festival in Arab and African region registered under category A of the International Federation of Producers in Brasilis, France, FIAPF.