El-Gouna Film Festival to award Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker

CAIRO – 14 September 2017: The Oscar-winning actor-director Forest Whitaker will visit Egypt to attend El-Gouna Film Festival held from September 22 to 29 where he will receive a lifetime achievement award, according to The Variety.

Whitaker, who won an Oscar award for his role as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland", was praised by artistic director, Intishal al-Timimi, for playing roles with “significant social and human dimensions,” as mentioned in The Variety.

In addition, the 77-year old- actor Adel Emam will receive the Creative Achievement Award during El-Gouna Film Festival (GFF) titled, “Cinema for Humanity,” for his high reputation as the most outstanding star in Arab films and for his distinguished humanitarian situations.

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.

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.

Displaying an array of works from around the globe such as Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, France, Italy, Finland, Switzerland, the United States, Russia, India and Japan, 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.

“Sheikh Jackson” will be the opening movie for the festival in its first edition. TaPFRmimi said, “We are proud that this special movie will be introduced in the opening ceremony because it will attract many movie producers, not only Arabs, but also foreigners who are interested in these kinds of movies.”