Intishal Al-Tamimi – Courtesy of official Facebook account
CAIRO - 25 August 2017: Inteshal Al-Tamimi the Iraqi director of El Gouna Film Festival said that there is an international context now that cinema is intercontinental. ‘’We have seen the festivals of Venice and Berlin run by Swiss, I am happy cooperating with Egyptian youth during the events,’’ recounted Al-Tamimi. The director of the festival said that there is a plan that has been developed and is being implemented carefully for the first edition to come in the perfect way they wish.
‘’We have completed a lot of the plan, the festival management was keen to present an Egyptian film at the opening of the festival which is ‘Sheikh Jackson,’ which received international acclaim during its participation in the Toronto Film Festival in Canada,’’ Al-Tamimi said.
Al-Tamimi explained that the festival will include a lot of surprises that they will going to announce after they complete it. The famous Oscar awarded American actor Forest Whitaker was invited to the festival.
Al-Tamimi said that around 70 movies from the most important within the Arab level or the international one will participate in the festival. ‘’There will be three film competitions, the first for long feature movies, the second for long documentaries and the third for short movies,’’ Al-Tamimi elaborated.
Al-Tamimi explained that there are a number of Iraqi films that will participateadding that he hoped there would be strong Iraqi participation, but at the end they will choose the good film regardless of its nationality. ‘’We know that the audience is the most important element of the festival’s success, so we will assign busesto transport the audience between El Gouna and Hurghada to ensure their participation in the festival events,’’ Al-Tamimi recounted.
El Gouna Film Festival management is currently working hard as the countdown of the launch of the first edition has started. The festival first round will kick off from September 22 to September 29, under the slogan ‘Cinema for Humanity,’ which is scheduled to be held in El Gouna in Hurghada.
El-Gouna Film Festival has announced its international advisory committee on their official Facebook page on August 23. The board is said to consist of ten Arab and international cinema stars including the famous Egyptian actress Yousra, director Mohamed Malas, Tunisian star Hend Sabri, Afghani writer and director Atiq Rahimi, Palestinian writer and director Hayam Abbas, Tunisian producer and distributor Tariq ben Ammar, Egyptian director Yusri Nasrallah, Mauritanian filmmaker Abdel Rahman Sissako, German Margarita von Trotta, and American artist Forest Whitaker.
El-Gouna Film Festival also announced a press conference that will take place on Sunday, August 27 at Cairo Hotel and will be conducted by Yousra, Naguib Sawiris and Anshal Tamimi, where they announce the detailed program of the festival. The festival aims to promote the Egyptian film industry and provide opportunities to encourage young talents in the Middle East,” Sawiris said at a press conference. Last month, the festival closed its doors for film submissions and is evaluating submissions.
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