‘Dead Dog’ wins CineGouna Platform Award

CAIRO – 31 March 2018: CineGouna Platform gave out an award at Beirut Cinema Platform (BCP) to the film project “Dead Dog” directed by Sarah Francis.

Francis was born in Beirut and graduated from IESAV at Saint Joseph University. Since 2005, she has worked as a freelance director and has participated in several workshops and labs. In 2013, she made her feature-length documentary “Birds of September” which was screened at numerous international festivals and museums, and won several awards.

Her work also includes short videos. She is currently developing a project with the support of the Asian Cinema Fund. With “Dead Dog”, her upcoming fiction project, she was a participant of Cinephilia Bound in collaboration with La Maison des Scénaristes at the Festival de Cannes in 2017, and is also attending other major film labs.

As a result of this award, “Dead Dog” will automatically be selected as part of CineGouna Springboard’s official selection. El Gouna Film Festival offers through the CineGouna Springboard an opportunity to find creative and financial support for Arab film directors and producers with films in development or works-in-progress. The CineGouna Springboard is the project development and co-production lab of the festival, it is an important part of the CineGouna Platform which targets to nurture and support the most promising talents of Egyptian and Arab cinema.


“El Gouna Film Festival aims to support Arab filmmakers and Arab cinema through CineGouna platform; therefore, we are excited to be supporting Beirut Cinema Platform through this award,” said El Gouna Film Festival Director Intishal Al Tamimi.


The second edition of El Gouna Film Festival is set to take place from Sept. 20-28. The closing ceremony of the first edition of El Gouna Film Festival was on Sept. 29, 2017. It was attended by a notable group of Egyptian and international filmmakers, like Vanessa Williams and the famous American actor Forest Whitaker, who was awarded the lifetime achievement award. The festival’s management showed a documentary that features Whitaker’s most important acting roles.

“Photocopy” won the El Gouna Golden Star Award for the Best Arabic Feature Narrative Film (the prize includes the trophy, a certificate and $20,000). Daniel Gimenez Cacho, the star of “Zama”, was awarded the Best Actor Award, while the Best Actress Award went to Nadia Kunda, the star of “Volubilis”. The closing ceremony was presented by the famous Egyptian actress Amina Khalil and ended with a song tailor-made for the festival by the mega star Yousra.