Sawaris reveals reasons for choosing El Gouna Film Festival slogan

Cairo-September 1-2017: Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawaris, the main sponsor of El Gouna Film Festival, revealed the reason behind choosing “Cinema for Humanity” as El Gouna Film Festival’s (GFF) slogan.
“Seeing that the world is suffering from serious conflicts across different regions, art has always been a mean of uniting people and, thus, we have chosen the theme ‘Cinema for Humanity’ as we aspire the festival to have a positive impact on our society at large,” he said in the GFF’s official Instagram account.

Emerging Arab and Egyptian filmmakers gear up to participate in the first anticipated edition of the GFF, which will run between September 22 and September 29 at El Gouna, Hurghada.

Sponsored by the Egyptian Culture Ministry and the Egyptian Tourism Authority, the GFF seeks to foster different cinematic voices and generate opportunities to further develop creativity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The U.S. embassy in Cairo is also partnering in the festival through the Premier American Film Diplomacy Program and the American Film Showcase, which 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 several competition categories: Feature Narrative, Feature Documentary, Short Films, “Official Out of Competition” selection and Special Programs.