EL GOUNA, Egypt — British auteur Joanna Hogg, serving as Jury President for the Feature Narrative Competition at the 9th El Gouna Film Festival (GFF), delivered an eloquent reflection on the enduring power of the medium during the festival’s opening ceremony, asserting that cinema extends far beyond storytelling to act as a vital guardian of human memory.
Addressing an audience of international filmmakers, industry executives, and regional stars gathered in the Red Sea resort town, Hogg framed film as an archive of shared human experience, particularly crucial amidst today’s global turmoil.
“Cinema becomes a repository for collective memory,” Hogg noted during the jury introduction segment, which also featured previews of the competition lineup. “It preserves the images of people, places, and stories that time might otherwise erase, offering future generations a window into worlds they never inhabited and human truths they did not directly live.”
Hogg paid tribute to Egypt’s deep-rooted cinematic heritage, highlighting that GFF builds upon a history stretching back to the dawn of the moving image. She pointed out that film screenings took place in Alexandria and Cairo as early as 1896—contemporaneous with the pioneering experiments of the Lumière brothers in France.
Connecting her remarks to the festival’s longstanding banner, “Cinema for Humanity,” the director of The Souvenir and The Eternal Daughter emphasized art’s unique capacity to transcend political and cultural divides. In an era marked by conflict and crisis, she argued, cinema remains one of the few spaces capable of confronting foundational human questions around fear, loss, and survival.
Closing her address, Hogg invited festivalgoers to immerse themselves in the international competition, praising the thematic and stylistic diversity of the slate and highlighting cinema’s role as a bridge for cross-cultural dialogue.
Joining Hogg on the Feature Narrative jury are Egyptian composer Khaled Hammad, Iraqi director Shawkat Amin Korki, Egyptian actress Nahed El Sebai, and acclaimed Turkish director Yeşim Ustaoğlu.
