From November 20 to 29, 2018, the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), with the screenwriter and producer Mohamed Hefzy, the youngest president of his history, celebrates his 40 editions.
Founded in 1976, the CIFF, despite all the obstacles and challenges that have marked its existence, is the only Festival in the Middle East to have reached such a number of editions, although the festival was not held in 2011 and 2013, due to Revolution.
On this occasion, an exhibition devoted to the 40 editions of the festival and inaugurated by Ms. Ines Abdel-Dayem, the Minister of Egyptian Culture, Mr. Mohamed Hefzy, the president of the Ciff, Mr. Khaled Abdel Jalil, the president of the National Center of the Film, Ms. Magda Wassef, the previous president of the festival, the Egyptian actors Hussein Fahmy (who, Below, was president of CIFF from 1998 to 2001), Mostapha Fahmy and Lebleba and other personalities in the world of Egyptian cinema, traced the most important stages of the 42 years of age of the festival and its impact on the artistic, cultural and social level.
This exhibition includes, among other things, the posters of the 40 editions, from the first to the last, hundreds of photographs, especially guests (including for example Sophia Loren and Richard Gere) and winners of the various competitions, catalogs and programs from previous editions, some posters of programmed films (including Pretty Woman by Garry Marshall, Hiroshima my love Alain Resnais, Yacoubian building by Marwan Hamed, Asmaa From Amr Salama…), photos of professionals honored during 40 editions (including Youssef Chahine, Mohamed Abdelwaheb, Faten Hamama, Omar Sharif, etc.), photos of the various members of the festival organizing committee, photos of the nine presidents of the festival, copies of correspondence, books published by the festival and some trophies…
CIFF 2018 – posters of 40 editions of the festival
CIFF 2018 – Correspondence from the various editions of the CIFF
CIFF 2018 – Tributes…
CIFF 2018 – Various photos by edition
CIFF 2018 – Trophies over the years …
CIFF 2018 – The Cairo Festival, an institution…
CIFF 2018 – Some famous guests…
CIFF 2018 – The publications of the Festival Au Fil des 40 Éditions….
In addition, an installation photos and videos tried to make the parallel between the various editions of the festival, the history of Egyptian cinema and the various events that have marked the contemporary history of Egypt, such as the death of the artist Abdel Halim Hafez or the Nassorisme.
An interactive map allows you to know the award -winning films in CIFF by country: when we click on a country, a list of films in this country awarded at the festival appears, such as the Tunisian film Tunis by night, Directed by Elyes Baccar and which won the price for best actor in 2017 for Raouf Ben Amor.
CIFF 2018 – Interactive Map
In addition, the CIFF had a book published, written by the young researcher in history Moheb Jamil. This book covers the history of the festival through its 39 previous editions and highlights the most important events of the festival, which has lasted for 42 years, and whose history is linked to that of cinema in Egypt and in the Arab region.
The book, published in part in English and partly in Arabic, recounts the edition festival by edition. For each edition, he lists the names of organizational officials and members of the various committees, the films selected and finally the prize list. It also sometimes gives an overview on the benefits on the press or tells of special anecdotes.
In the Arabic language, we find in addition, a list of all the cinema professionals, Arabs or others, to which the CIFF paid tribute during these 42 years, among them, as an example, Charlie Chaplin and Claudia Cardinale in 1989, Salma Hayek in 2009, Richard Gere in 2010 or Adrien Brody in 2017.
There is also a list of all the books published by the Festival from 1991 to 2017 and a biography of all the presidents of the festival: Kamel Malekh (1976 -1983), Kamal El Sheikh (1984), Saad Eddine Wahba (1985 -1997), Hussein Fahmy (1998 -2001), Sherif El Shobashi (2002 -2005) ABO OUF (2005 – 2012), Samir Farid (2014) and Magda Wassef (2015 – 2017).
CIFF 2018 – The book dedicated to 40 editions of the Festival
Both the exhibition that the book were excellent initiatives, which we liked to see made during the 50th anniversary of the JCCs which took place in November 2016.
Regarding the book, it would have been preferable that it was a little more analytical and that it is not limited to enumerating names, titles and rewards, but there is still an important document, which gives a lot of information concerning the 40 editions of the Festival.
By cons the exhibition was very interesting and even touching. It immerses us in the atmosphere of the Festival of the last forty years, it allows you to see and review the artists, the films, to see the evolution of the festival…. And above all it contributes to perpetuating the memory of the festival.
Do the JCC have such archives? Does this festival have all the catalogs of past editions? Does he keep the old correspondence? And all the posters of these previous editions? Nothing is less certain, but it is time to think about bringing together all these archives and memories, and perhaps thinking of organizing a great exhibition for the 60th anniversary!
Neïla Driss
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