CAIRO – 27 August 2017: Emerging Arab and Egyptian filmmakers gear up to participate in the first anticipated edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) that will run between September 22 and September 29 at El Gouna in Hurghada.
Sponsored by the Egyptian Culture Ministry and Egyptian Tourism Authority GFF seeks to foster different cinematic voices and generate opportunities to further develop creativity in the MENA regions.
The U.S Embassy in Cairo is also partnering in the festival through the premier American film Diplomacy Program and the American Film Showcase that will host the festival’s workshops and mentoring sessions, according to a statement released by the Cultural Attaché of the embassy.
Displaying an array of works from around the globe, the festival is promoting rising filmmakers and will include three competition categories; Feature Narrative, Feature Documentary, Short Films, ‘Official Out of Competition’ selection, and Special Programs.
The festival board seeks to partake in the unique attempt of establishing an international festival complying with the standards of worldwide recognized festivals. There are several festivals that receive Arab participations such as Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival.
Festival Director, Intshal Al Timimi, has asserted in a press conference on Sunday that the festival board seeks to add international value. The festival intends to be the newest arising festival in the region.
Co-founder of GFF Egyptian actress Bushra Rozza has worked ambitiously to convince renowned businessmen Naguib Sawaris and Sameh Sawaris to fund the festival alongside with supporting it through partners including Gemini Development, Orascom Telecom Holding, Euronews, and La Mancha Holding.
“We want to tell the world that Egyptian cinema is able to present film productions that are able to challenge and compete on an international level,” said Rozza during the conference.
The first edition of the festival will also feature screenings and organize a special segment called ‘CineGouna Platform’. The first edition seeks to support Egyptian and Arab artists through a number of meetings and networking that will be held among producers, distributors, and directors to boost Arab cinema.
Several other segments will also be featured including round-tables, workshops, panels, and master-lectures, according to GFF’s official press release.
“This is a step forward for future projects and therefore requires having a sense of direction to be able to compare with internationally recognized festivals. We have managed to achieve over 80% of our goals,” explained Al Timimi.
Festival Director Inteshal Al Timimi (Photo by Egypt Today)
El Gouna is among Egypt’s popular touristic destinations and was chosen to be the home of the festival in efforts to boost the cultural scene in several areas across the country, according to CEO of the Festival and co-found of GFF Amr Mansi.“El Gouna has all the elements that encourages similar cultural events”, Mansi added.
Ruth Anne Stevens the Culture Attaché in the American Embassy in Cairo have stated that the most successful film festivals in the world tend to focus more on premiering great films instead of focusing on stars on the red carpet.
“A festival can rise to an international level if it focuses on professional development of cinema creation and helping young film writers, emerging film writers, directors, producers come together, giving them the opportunity to network to expand their ability to get their creative vision onto the screen but also to help them with opportunities for mentorship for professional education and development,” Stevens told Egypt Today.
She added that such effort is implemented on several occasions citing Sun Dance at LA Film Festival as an example. She praised that such concept of focusing on developing artists is applied in GFF.
The opening film for the festival will be the recent project by film director Amr Salama ‘Sheikh Jackson’, a light humanistic story depicting the influence of the king of pop Michael Jackson on an average religious clerk.
Salama, who was present in the conference, tells Egypt Today that the film has no specific message to the audience except portraying a common life of an average citizen and his surroundings. He remains in anticipation of the festival and he encourages rising talents in cinema by featuring a young cast of rising actors and actresses in his film.
“The idea of having reputable foreign films participating in Egypt is in itself recognizable and will contribute to the current Egyptian cinema scene. Launching an Egyptian festival that caters foreign works is very important to the current scene as there hasn’t been any Egyptian festival that successfully managed to attract foreign films to participate,” Salama told Egypt Today.
He also mentioned that the current Egyptian cinema scene lacks a novel variety of tools and methods that could teach rising artists the essence of cinema.
The Egyptian films participating in the one-week event include ‘Sheikh Jackson’ and ‘Photo Copy’ by Tamer Ashry. The festival will also present awards ranging between $ 15,000 and $ 50,000.
Another Egyptian film will also participate as part of the Feature Documentary Competition called ‘I have a Picture’ by Mohamed Zedan. The documentary revolves around Motawe Eweis who has contributed about 1000 films in Egyptian cinema starting from 1940’s. The Feature Documentary Competition feature awards ranging between $ 7,500 and $ 30,000.
The Short Films Competition will feature Egyptian films ‘My Festival (Marghani)’ an eight-minute film by Jaylan Auf, ‘Nada’ a 27- minute film by Adel Yehia, and Newton’s Third Law a 11- minutes film by Nour Alsoliman.
Prominent Egyptian actress Nelly Karim will be president of the jury committee for the Short Films Competition that will award winning films prizes ranging between $5,000 and $ 15,000.
The international festival will also feature participations of Arab films from various countries including Iran, Lebanon, India, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria.
While international films competing include contributions from France, Greece, U.S, Bulgaria, UK, Japan, Serbia, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, Singapore, Russia, Mexico, China, Netherlands, Senegal, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.
Al Timimi emphasized that the festival renowned for its contribution to the Egyptian cinema scene, and highlighting the importance of recognizing the emergence of new film productions. He further explained the ability of the festival in hosting a suitable program that will pave way for its success.
“The festival is a continuous effort to existing Arab and international festival and what is special about this edition is the place. We dealt with El Gouna as a city not a capital where we were able to be sure that the city will allow the types of activities we plan to carry out,” Al Timimi told Egypt Today.
He also added that the festival symbolizes a remarkable chance for cinema experts from around the globe to meet and be able to provide artistic and financial support to rising projects.
Al Timimi has also spoke about obstacles that organizers faced while planning the festival, however they were able to overcome these challenges through hosting a number of directors, distributors, filmmakers, and producers.
“The obstacles are many and mainly because the cinema scene in the region is not secured financially and lacks the actual essence of a cinema market that usually secures a good partnership flow among producers and distributors and other agents in cinema,” explained Al Timimi.
Other special segments will be featured in the festival including seminars, workshops, and special segments. CineGouna Springboard is a platform that will provide an opportunity to fund creative Arab filmmakers in post-production of a film. The creative projects will be chosen from among 50 applications from eight Arab countries.
Another special segment is the CineGouna Bridge which will serve as a link between Arab filmmakers and their international counterparts through round-tables and workshops.
Several prominent agents are leading the first edition of the ambitious festival including Al Timimi, Rozza, Mansi, Kamal Zadeh CEO of the organizing company of GFF, and a group of consultants and programmers including famous filmmaker of ‘Jews of Egypt’ Amir Ramses, Teresa Cavina, Nicole Guillmet, and Raman Chawla.
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