Tonight will take place the opening of the 39th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) which will take place from November 21 to 30, 2017.
The Egyptian actress Yosra will be the honorary president of this edition dedicated to the great star Shadia, considered as an artistic and national treasure having regard to her exceptional career and the love she has to her admirers and Egypt.
It is also this evening that Hend Sabry will receive the Prize for Excellence Faten Hamama in tribute to his entire career. What pride for her and for all Tunisians!
The opening film chosen for this year is “The Mountain Between Us” directed by the Palestinian Hany Abu-Assad, with in the main roles Kate Winslet and Idris Elba.
From tomorrow, will start the festival activities. 175 films from 53 countries will be screened during these ten days. Among these films, nine represent their countries in the Oscar race and hope to be nominated for The Oscar for the best film in a foreign language.
The official competition jury will be chaired by Egyptian actor Hussein Fahmy, The other members being the Palestinian director Hany Abou Assad, the Egyptian director Khaïry Beshara, the Polish screenwriter Petr Vaclav, the Australian director Scott Hillier, the Chinese distributor Jack Lee, the French actress Fabienne Babe, the Indian journalist Smirti Kiran and the Syrian actress Kinda Alloush.
In addition on the sidelines of these projections and competitions, several cultural activities are planned, including for example the opening Thursday November 23 of an exhibition in tribute to the great critic of Egyptian cinema Samir Farid who died during this year. It should be noted that the JCCs also organized a tribute exhibition to Samir Farid two weeks ago.
The same day will take place the screening of an Australian film in the presence of Mr. Ambassador Neil Hawkins, Australia being the guest of honor of this edition of the festival. To this end, 10 Australian films will be screened in the presence of Australian actors and filmmakers.
On November 25, the CIFF also participated in the “International day for the elimination of violence against women». Throughout the day, orange ribbons will be distributed before projections in support of this cause.
In addition, in collaboration with the National Women’s Council and the United Nations Women’s Office in Egypt, the CIFF participates in the launch of a media campaign to make known This orange day Through the festival activities and to emphasize the positive role that the film industry could play in eliminating violence against women in Egypt and in the world. This campaign will also aim to focus on the negative impact that violence can play against women on screens. Its objective also aims to encourage filmmakers, actors and directors to undertake to work in the line of this orange day and to prohibit any contrary behavior.
An international conference, moderate by Ms. Magda Maurice, will be organized in the Hanager room, to discuss the dangers and reasons for violence against women, how the films depict the problem and what awareness role they could play.
On November 26, the second seminar organized by the CIFF will revolve around “challenges of Egyptian cinema”: to determine what poses a major problem at Egyptian cinema festivals, to the filmmakers, to the union of cinema professions and at the Ministry of Culture. We will deal with the future of the film industry in Egypt and the factors that have had a negative impact on this industry: monopoly, hacking, taxes and production problems. This seminar will be moderate by Khaled Mahmoud.
On November 28, the CIFF will also organize a seminar entitled “Netflix and the future of cinematographic distribution”. We will talk about the new ways to watch television shows and online movies via Smart TV, game consoles, laptops, macbooks, mobile phones and computers, and how Netflix changed the broadcasting system, distribution and production, then developed to produce its own online shows and movies. Several researchers and professionals will discuss how the film industry has been affected by these recent changes. This seminar will be moderate by the film critic and journalist OSSAMA Abdel Fattah Rezk.
All these seminars will be held in the “hall of ministers” of the Higher Council of Culture from 11 am to 1 pm.
On November 29 will take place a last seminar/tribute “Farewell to those we lost” in Al Hadara Hall at 11 a.m. The CIFF thus honors some of the most eminent and talented filmmakers, criticisms, actors who have left us recently: the Egyptian critic Samir Farid, the Egyptian director Mohamed Kamel Kaliouby, the Lebanese director Jean Chamoun and the French actress and director Jeanne Moreau.
Seminars will also be organized for the winners of the Honorary Prize and Excellence of Faten Hamama: the Egyptian actor Samir Ghanem, the Egyptian actor Maged El Kedwany and the Tunisian actress Hend Sabry.
Good festival!
Neïla Driss
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