Sawiris Foundation reveals annual ceremony date

CAIRO - 15 December 2019: Sawiris Foundation for Social Development revealed the date of its annual ceremony where the winners of the 15th Sawiris Cultural Award will be announced.

The ceremony will be held on Jan. 10, 2020 at Cairo Opera House's Grand Theater at 7 p.m.

The foundation confirmed in a statement that the evaluation of the submitted works is being completed by five neutral arbitration committees that include a selection of writers, poets, filmmakers, critics and drama pioneers from Egypt.

The award secretariat is currently preparing to announce on Dec. 17 the shortlist of works nominated for the Best Work Award in the areas of novel, fictional set, screenplay, and film scenario for young authors.

The Board of Trustees also announced withholding the award for "Best Professional Screenplay - First Branch" for the year 2019, since only two works were received to compete for the award.

The board stated that the competition received 719 works in its various branches, including 181 novels and anecdotal collection for the Senior Writers branch, 181 novels and stories in the Youth Writers branch, 219 scenarios for the Script branch - First Work, 102 theatrical texts for the Theater branch and 36 works for Literary Criticism .

Sawiris Foundation for Social Development is an Egyptian charity organization linked with the Sawiris Family. It is a prominent institution of economic and social aid established in 2001 in Egypt.