Cairo – Organisers of the inaugural El-Gouna Film Festival still have high hopes that the eight-day event will continue as a fixture on the Middle Eastern cultural calendar.
Tonight was the opening of a special edition after being postponed twice, the long-awaited event kicked off “without any celebration” according to the organizers, in a commitment to supporting the burgeoning film talent in the country.
The stars in attendance seemed to follow a dress code of subtle elegance, with all of them opting for hues of black, white, and silver. And the festival replaced themed carpet with a sandy one.
The international festival, sponsored by Egyptian business tycoons Sameh and Naguib Sawiris and to take place in the Red Sea resort of El Gouna, aims to promote peace, tolerance and co-existence, organisers said.
Cinema for humanity was the tag for this year, “This message is very important now, given what we see everywhere around us,” said Amr Mansi, the festival co-founder and the CEO of the company organising the event. “We are trying to throw light on cinematic works that impart this message and encourage works that prove that cinema as an art form is capable of bringing about the aspired peace and coexistence.”
Perhaps this is the reason the festival’s Programming Committee selected “window on Palestine,” a program to be screened at the festival’s days.
The festival features films from more than 15 Arab and Western countries. The festival’s closing film, to be shown December 21, will be ‘’’’ film-maker Ai Weiwei’s “Human Flow,” which looks at the global refugee crisis.
Those working with Mansi to make the event a success said the El-Gouna Film Festival only accepts films that promote cultural interaction, foster awareness of different cinematic voices by encouraging dialogue and build bridges of creative intellect.
“The festival aims to turn into a chance for people from around the world to unite around a number of goals. If achieved, these goals can help the world to become a better place,” said Marianne Khoury, the director of the festival for this year. “Cinema is a very important media that can effect change.”
The festival’s organising committee invested nearly $5 million to put the event together, including securing an all-star list of actors and directors to head its advisory board.
The festival will hand out more than $208,000 in cash prizes to films competing in feature narrative, feature documentary and short categories.
Published December 14, 2023.
