Hurley, Longoria in CIFF opening ceremony

CAIRO – 20 November 2017: Cairo International Film Festival’s management announced that renowned English actress Elizabeth Hurley and famous American actress Eva Longoria are the festival’s opening ceremony guests.

Hurley was born on June 10, 1965. She started to gain fame since a well known cosmetics company gave her the first modeling job at the age of 29. In 1987, Hurley acted in her first movie, “Aria”. Hurley played the role of the devil in “Bedazzled”, achieving a boom in her success through this role.

Her films include “Passenger 57”, “EDtv”, “Serving Sara”, and others. Hurley is the owner of a beachwear line.

Eva Longoria was born on March 15, 1975. Longoria began to come under the spotlight after performing the role of Isabella Brana in the famous soap opera “The Young and the Restless” from 2001 to 2003.


Eva Longoria - photo courtesy of Flickr by Web Summit

Longoria’s master role was in the worldwide successful series “Desperate Housewives”, which ran from 2004 to 2012. She played the role of Gabrielle Solis. She was previously nominated to win a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in “Desperate Housewives”.

Longoria acted in a number of movies, such as “Over Her Dead body”, “Harsh Times”, and “John Wick”, among others.

The 39th CIFF is set to kick off on November 21 and will run to November 30. Both the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony will take place in Al Manara Conferences Palace, located in the New Administrative Capital.

The film screenings will take place in Cairo Opera House’s Small Hall, Hanager Theater, the American University in Cairo, the Cultural Creative Artistic Center and Odeon Cinema.



CIFF management chose to screen the American movie “Mountain Between Us” in the opening ceremony of the festival, which stars Kate Winslet and Idris Elba.

Hussein Fahmy, veteran Egyptian actor and former head of CIFF, will be the jury committee head of the International Official Competition. Australia will be this edition’s guest of honor.

The 39th edition of the festival will honor great late cinema critic Samir Farid. The festival’s management is preparing a program to honor a number of late distinguished filmmakers, such as great Egyptian director Mohamed Kamel el Kaliouby and veteran Lebanese director John Shamoun.

The festival’s management also decided to choose Egyptian megastar Youssra to be this year's honorary president of the festival. The festival will screen 175 films this year from 53 countries.

Renowned comedian Samir Ghanem is set to receive the Faten Hamama Honorary and Excellence Award, becoming the first comedic actor to receive this award.

The festival’s management has decided to grant the Faten Hamama Honorary Award this year to famous Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabry and well-known Egyptian actor Maged el Kidwany.

The Faten Hamama Honorary Award is usually given to young artists and filmmakers with significant contributions to the art of cinema.