It is tomorrow evening that the 41 will startth Session of Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) which will take place from November 20 to 29, 2019.
This session will be dedicated to Youssef Cherif Rizkallah (1942 – 2019), a very famous Egyptian cinema critic, which has been a member of the artistic committee of the festival since 1987 and president of this same commission since 2000. During the 40th Edition, a tribute had also been paid to him, to thank him for the excellent work he had accomplished in the festival.
When after his death, his son Ahmed had learned that the CIFF intended to dedicate this 41st session to him, he said: “My father’s relationship with the Cairo International Film Festival lasted three decades. He was also honored during the 40th edition of the festival. Pay tribute to him this year and with such depth shows how much the president of the festival and the whole team recognize the importance of the role that my father has played to support the festival over the years and disseminate the culture of cinema in Egypt ».
In November 2018, during the 40th edition of the CIFF, it was decided to create a new prize, awarded to the film chosen by the public. This prize will be called Youssef Chérif Rizkallah, who as artistic director of the festival, had implemented the main lines of the programming of this 41st edition, even if he left before completing it.
During the opening ceremony, three other tributes will be returned this year: to the director, screenwriter, actor and English actor Terry Gilliam who will receive the Faten Hamama Prize; To the director, scriptwriter and producer Egyptian Sherif Arafa who will receive the Honorary Prize Faten Hamama for all of his work, which includes 22 films including the famous Al Li3B Ma3a Il Koubar (Playing with Les Grands – 1990) which was selected from the 100 best Egyptian films; And finally to the Egyptian actress Menna Shalaby, who will receive the Prix of Excellence Faten Hamama for her entire career.
Menna Shalaby started on television in 2001 in the series Morning and evening talks Inspired by a novel by Naguib Mahfouz. Since then, she has chained roles, especially in the cinema, knowing how to combine commercial films and independent films. She worked with several directors, including Youssef Chahine in her latest film Chaos (2007), Ahmad Abdallah in the film MicrophoneTanit d’or des JCC 2010 and Yousry Nasrallah in After the battle (2012) in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and The stream, the green meadow and the sweet face (2016) In competition at the Locarno festival. Menna Shalaby had been a member of the jury of the long and short films of the Carthage 2014 cinematographic day.
In 2017, Hend Sabry also received this Prize for Excellence Faten Hamama.
During the press conference which took place on November 4, The screenwriter and producer Mohamed Hefzy, Who chairs the CIFF for two years, has unveiled the poster of this 41st edition: a golden tree, whose trunk is none other than the goddess Isis. He explained that through the tree, this poster is supposed to represent the deep roots of this festival which plays a very important role for the promotion of cinema. As for Isis, not only has been used for years as CIFF logo, but this year it is even more important. Indeed, the CIFF has signed this year, and it is the first Arab Festival to do so, the 50/50 treaty initiated at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Of course, this does not mean that there will be a perfect parity between men and women’s directors in the programming of films, but that there will be transparency in figures and a real desire to arrive at this parity and in Egypt. Besides, the only Egyptian film selected in the international competition this year is Let’s Talk (Let’s talk) of Marianne Khoury.
Like every year, the CIFF, which is one of the 15 largest film festivals in the world, has prepared a very beautiful selection of films: 153 films in 63 countries, including 18 in the world’s first, 17 in international first (that is, they have already been projected in their countries of origin) and 84 in the first Arab. A total of almost 120 films first in the MENA region. No festival in the Arab world has never achieved such a feat. This is an objective that the CIFF had set itself and made every effort to achieve it.
Because the experience in 2018 had been a success, this year it was decided to double the number of gala projections, or red carpet. In 2018, 7 films had benefited from the red carpet, this year there will be 13, two per evening, including 6 among the 15 films in international competition. The projections will take place in the presence of the film teams.
Thanks to a special Netflix authorization, the opening film will be The Irishman (The Irishman) of Martin Scorsese, with in the main roles Robert de Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. In 2018, Netflix had also allowed CIFF to project the film Roma From Alfonso Cuarón, who had subsequently had a planetary success and won several prizes in prestigious festivals, and to various competitions, such as the Golden Globes and the Oscars. The novelty of this session is that the opening film will be screened a second time for the public, at the Opera, the day after the opening, on November 21.
Another experience, started in 2018, will be renewed in 2019: virtual reality. But with a novelty: in addition to the screening of films, this year virtual reality will be at the service of the cinema past. Indeed, during the 40th edition, there had been an exhibition on the history of the CIFF for which there was an important research and a work on the archives, which were digitized. This year, we are going to use a new program that will allow you to take a look at the past of Egyptian cinema: an exhibition of a new kind will be organized, it will show the cinematographic memories of the city of Cairo, one of the largest cinematographic production centers in the world, using new technologies. In parallel, an interactive telephone application was even created to allow you to walk in the city of Cairo and see on screen scenes that have been shot in these neighborhoods.
Neïla Driss
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