The American magazine “Variety” has just updated its annual list, started in 2017, of the 500 most influential personalities in the field of the media industry and entertainment in the world. This year, Egyptian producer and screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy, President of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has entered this list. He is the second Egyptian to appear there after the businessman Naguib Sawiris, founder of the El Gouna Film Festival in 2017.
This list, developed by the magazine’s editorial committee, which conducts very in -depth research to reflect the achievements of these 500 personalities in the past 12 months, includes a number of entertainment industry professionals around the world, including the CEO of Walt Disney Company Robert Eiger, the very famous television host, producer and editor of Magazines Oprah Winfrey Scorse, Steven Spielberg, Pedro Almodovar, Luc Besson and Quentin Tarantino, the general delegate of the Cannes festival Thierry Frémaux, the actors Scarlett Johansson, Meryl Streep, Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks and Rami Malek.
In addition to these two Egyptians, this list includes nine other personalities from the Arab world (two of Qatar, four of the United Arab Emirates and three of Saudi Arabia), including Turki Al-Shabana, Minister of Information of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Fatima Hassan al-Rumaihi, Director of Doha Tribeca Film Festival and the Doha Film Institute and Waleed Bin Ibrahim Ibrahim founder and CEO of MBC Group. Franco-Tunisian producer Tarek Ben Ammar is also on this list.
Mohamed Hefzy and his team – Closing of the 41st edition of CIFF
Variety said that the selection of Mohamed Hefzy was mainly made in his capacity as the younger president of the Cairo International Film Festival, and for his role in the recovery of this festival, which had lost its brilliance due to political troubles in Egypt during the years 2011 and following.
It is obvious that since he has the head of the Cairo International Film Festival, Mohamed Hefzy has made radical changes. During a meeting he held with a few journalists on the last day of the 41st edition of the CIFF, he explained that one of the first difficulties he encountered was to find the necessary funding, the State giving only 40% of the budget. But in 2019, thanks to the success of the previous edition, it was a little easier to find partners and sponsors. Then, it was necessary to “modernize” the management of the festival, especially in terms of communication. For this, he called on foreign executives who worked with the Egyptian team and who changed the working methods. Without forgetting all the measures taken to attract a larger public and give back to one of the greatest film festivals in the Arab world.
Another very important reform operated by Mohamed Hefzy has been to give greater room to cinema professionals through the Cairo Industry Days, A kind of small festival at the large festival, to allow meetings, exchanges, collaborations and especially the promotion of young filmmakers, through the master classes, round tables, discussions and various workshops.
Furthermore, during its 41st edition, the CIFF announced that the Academy of Arts and Cinema Sciences (AMPAS) awarded it the status of a qualifying festival at the Oscars, which will allow the winners of the “Cinema of tomorrow” prize to be eligible in the categories of short animation and action without the condition of distribution in cinema.
Mohamed Hefzy when the Cairo Industry Days 2019 is opened
Variety also indicated that Mohamed Hefzy had been chosen for the films he produced through his film-clinic company, and which won the praise of criticism and the admiration of the public.
It is obvious that Mohamed Hefzy’s journey is that of a “success story”. It had started in 2010, with the film Microphone From Ahmad Abdallah, who had toured the festivals and who had won several prizes, including the Tanit d’Or at the Carthage Cinematographic Days, the Prize for the best Arab film at the Cairo International Film Festival and the Best Film Prize at the Istanbul International Film Festival. He had then chained with other successes, such as films Villa 69 (2013) by Ayten Amin, Excuse my French (2014) from Amr Salama, Gaza singer (2015) by Hany Abu Assad,, Withered Green (2016) by Mohamed Hammad, Ali, the goat & ibrahim de Sherif El Bendary (2016) and Sheikh Jackson From Amr Salama (2017) who had all won prizes in various film festivals. But of course, its greatest success have been Clash of Mohamed Diab, which opened the a certain view of the Cannes festival in 2016 and Yomeddine from Abu Bakr Shawky which had been in official competition from the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
Moreover for editions 89, 90 and 91 of the Oscars, the films proposed by Egypt for the Oscar for the best film in a foreign language, are precisely the films Clash, Sheikh Jackson And Yomeddineproduced by Mohamed Hefzy.
Cannes Film Festival 2018 – Mohamed Hefzy with director Abu Bakr Shawky and producers Dina Emam and Daniel Ziskind.
Last May, Mohamed Hefzy also signed an agreement to co -produce Paranormalthe first TV series from Netflix from Egypt, in tandem with the Egyptian director Amr Salama.
Without forgetting that Mohamed Hefzy was also a member of juries of several film festivals, including CIFF in 2010, the Venice International Film Festival in 2018 and the London Film Festival in October 2019.
On his Facebook page, Mohamed Hefzy expressed his happiness and his pride in appearing on this annual list of Variety magazine, especially in his capacity as CIFF president since 2018.
Neïla Driss
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