Tomorrow evening will take place the opening of the first edition of the highly anticipated El Gouna film festival in Egypt.
The particularity of this festival, which will be annual, is that it is founded and funded by private funds, in this case by Egyptian businessmen Naguib and Samih Sawiris.
Naguib Sawirispresident of the company Orascom, is a great film buff and was for a long time the sponsor of the Cairo International Film Festival which he sponsored for several years.
Samih Sawiris is the promoter of seaside resort El Gounain which the festival will take place.
In fact, it is an intelligent attempt to combine cinema and tourism, culture and profits. THE Festival website Returns to the website of the seaside resort of El Gouna, with a link to the hotel booking platform and various stay formulas.
The festival has a very big budget (it is said that it is ten times higher than the budget of the Cairo International Film Festival, therefore about 90 million Egyptian pounds) which has allowed it to invite prestigious personalities from the world of cinema and attract interesting films thanks to the important rewards it offers (more than $ 200,000). For example, for the competition of fiction feature films, the prices are:
- El Gouna’s gold Star for the best fictional film: a trophy, a certificate and $ 50,000
- El Gouna’s Silver Star for the second best fiction film: a trophy, a certificate and $ 25,000
- El Gouna’s bronze star for the third best fictional film: a trophy, a certificate and $ 15,000
- El Gouna’s Star for the best Arab fiction film: a trophy, a certificate and $ 20,000
A controversy currently exists in Egypt, some fearing that this festival would shade at the Cairo International Film Festival. This is perhaps even already the case: it can be noted by the number of stars announced to attend both the festival opening and closing ceremonies to participate in the various workshops and round tables. In addition, among the films selected, some were expected to appear in the Cairo Festival program and preferred the El Gouna festival.
Personally I fully support this private initiative, I find that businessmen should invest more and more in culture, which contrary to what some people believe, reports on all levels.
Who knew the city of Cannes before?
Look at what it has become thanks to the festival!
It is known worldwide and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.
I think Naguib Sawiris has just taken an example on Cannes. And it is also in this city that the launch of the El Gouna festival took place.
Indeed, M.Sawiris had organized a reception on his own yacht which was at Quai in Cannes. There were several cinema professionals from around the world there.
Reception given on the yacht of M.Naguib Sawiris in Cannes to launch the El Gouna film festival.
During the press conference Who preceded the start of the festival for a few days, Samih Sawiris said he was aspired to ” Transform El Gouna into the Egyptian Côte d’Azur And attract tourists there thanks to this festival.
Press conference preceding the El Gouna film festival
The programming seems very interesting: 70 quality films from around the world, most of which had already been selected or awarded at major festivals such as those in Cannes, Venice or Toronto.
In addition to the three official competitions: feature films fiction, documentary feature films and short films, there is an official selection of off -competition films and a special section. The festival will favor films having a humanitarian character, the theme of the festival being precisely ” Cinema for humanity ».
The El Gouna festival has a platform to promote Arabic cinema: Cinégouna. This platform will allow the meeting of Arab professionals with professionals from around the world: producers, directors, programmers, distributors … in ways to offer new opportunities to Arab filmmakers and allow them to build up networks for funding, co -production and even advice.
The Egyptian film Sheikh Jackson From Amr Salama, with Ahmed El Feshawy and Ahmed Malek in the main roles, was chosen to open. The first of this film took place at the Toronto International Film Festival lately. It is also the film that has just been selected to represent Egypt for the Oscar for the best film in a foreign language in March 2018.
Among the long -awaited films during this festival, the Swedish feature film The Square which obtained the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival.
The Squaredirected by Ruben Östlund tells the story of Christian, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art installed in the Royal Palace of Stockholm. Ambitious, attractive, intelligent and funny, he prepares an exhibition entitled The Square around an artistic installation (a light square) encouraging visitors to tolerance and solidarity. When he is robbed of his phone and wallet by a band of pickpockets in the street, he plunges into an existential crisis that has repercussions on his personal life, revealing his cowardice and the failure of his professional life which goes from failure to fail.
De Cannes is also expected The formidable Directed by Michel Hazanavicius who traces a very special moment in the life of the avant-garde filmmaker Jean Luc Godard: his marriage to Anne Wiazemsky and the failure of his film Chinese In 1967, which was an opportunity for a great questioning. May 68 will amplify the process, and the crisis that Jean-Luc is going to transform it deeply, passing from star filmmaker into a Maoist artist outside the system as misunderstood as it is incomprehensible.
Also awaited, will be screened, as a world premiere the Egyptian film Photocopy De Tamer al-Achr, with Mahmoud Hemeda in the main role and in the first Arabic the film The insult of Lebanese Ziad Doueiri.
Unfortunately, no Tunisian film will be in official competition. On the other hand, among the 16 projects which will be presented at the Cinégouna platform, two Tunisian projects will try to win prizes and above all benefit from the networking offered by this platform, these are projects Behind the curtains from Afef ben Mahmoud and Nora in Wonderland from Hinde Boujemaa.
Tunisian film El Haimoune de Naceur Khmir will be projected in the special section. This 1984 film is the first of the trilogy filmed in the extent of the Tunisian desert by the same director. The second and third parts of the trilogy are The lost necklace of the dove in 1991 and Bab Aziz in 2005.
Two beautiful Tunisians will also be present at this festival:
- The Tunisian actress, director and producer Anissa Daoud who will be a member of the Jury Competition of Court Mets,
- And Hend Sabry which will lead a workshop tending to select an idea that will be developed in a short film.
Hend Sabry and Tarek Ben Ammar are members of the Festival International Advisory Council.
Good luck to this young festival, but which already has everything of a big one!
Neila Driss
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