All what you need to know about Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean countries

CAIRO - 7 November 2020: The Alexandria Film Festival for Mediterranean countries, headed by film critic Amir Abaza, announced that the thirty-sixth edition which will be held from November 7 -12 will bear the name of the renowned Egyptian actor Ezzat El Alayli, in appreciation of his wide career and rich artistic history.

El Alayli expressed his happiness with this honor and also thanked the festival management for choosing him.

El Alayli added that he carries beautiful memories with this festival, the last of which was serving as the president Nour Al-Sharif Arab Film Competition.

Abaza previously indicated that El Alayli deserves this honor because of his honorable cinematic and television repertoire.

Egyptian writer Samir Al-Jamal will write a book  about El Alayli artistic career.

The festival has two main competitions, one for Short movies and the other for feature movies. 

 El Alayli obtained a BA from the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts in 1960, and debuted his artistic career with “ Resala Men Emra’a Maghola”  (A Message from an Unknown Woman) movie  in 1962, which was his first cinematic step, later he participated in dozens of films.

One of his most important roles was in “ El Ard” (The Land) movie in 1970, directed by Youssef Chahine and among his most prominent films is " El Tare’e le Eilat” (The Road to Eilat).

In theater, he participated in several plays, the most important of which is "Ahlan Ya Bakawat” (Welcome, Ya Bakawat).

The festival management announced as well that veteran actor Salah Abdullah will be honored for his entire artistic work in the 36th edition.

  Abaza said that Salah Abdullah deserves to be honored because he presented many important cinematic works throughout his artistic career, and he also succeeded in bringing  joy to all his fans from all ages in all the works he participates in, in addition to his ability to embody  many diverse roles that impressed us all.

 He added that the honor will include the issuance of a book about his artistic life, written by journalist Zain Al-Abidin Khairi.

The book will highlight the most important cinematic stations in his artistic career.

 For his part, Abdullah expressed his happiness with being honored by a great festival such as Alexandria Film Festival, which has a long history, and therefore he sees that the honor is a great appreciation for him and this is what gives any artist the ability to continue because he feels that what he offers is  paid off. 

 It is noteworthy that Abdullah has other interests besides acting, as he writes poems and his real breakthrough was "Sonbol After a Million" series while one of his most famous roles was the series "Wolves of the Mountain" with famed Egyptian actor Ahmed Abdel Aziz.

Abdallah participated in a number of important films that placed him among the stars, starting with "Desire" with Nadia Al-Jundi, and "Citizen, Detective and Thief" with director Dawood Abdel Sayed, where he received through this role the award for best actor from the Film Association.

The 36th edition of the festival houses a number of prominent films, such as two films by director Bachir Abou Zeid; namely: the feature film Mafkoud and short film Idris that will have their world premiere at the festival, as well as One Month Old Devil by Ghassan ElKhouja, and Bethlehem by Ibrahim Handal, marking its Egyptian premiere.3