Egypt hosts Global Migration Film Festival (GMFF) for 3rd year

CAIRO - 22 November 2018: Egypt is hosting for the third year the Global Migration Film Festival (GMFF) from 28 November to 18 December 2018. to feature films and documentaries around the world that captures the promises and challenges of migration.

Designed to pave the way to broaden discussions on migration within the wider public, the movies cover topics common on migration, such as Labour Migration, Border Management and Children on the Move.

For 2018, the overall theme is “The Promise and Challenge of Migration, and the Positive Contributions Migrants Make to Their Communities”.

The Festival is screened by IOM offices simultaneously in more than 100 countries. In Egypt, the screenings will be at several different locations, both in Cairo and Alexandria.
The screenings are free entrance and open to the public, in cinemas and cultural centers. Private screenings are being scheduled at embassies, schools and companies.
The selection includes short films, documentaries and fiction. They cater to young and adult audiences alike, captivating stories of people on the move and the impact on the communities receiving them.

Over the years, films have been used to inform, entertain, educate and provoke debate. It is in this spirit that IOM, the UN Migration Agency, launched The Global Migration Film Festival (GMFF) in 2016.

Cinema and migration have a magical bond stretching back over a century ago when film makers, many of whom were immigrants themselves, began making movies that depicted a world on the move. Their films brought the dramatic, poignant and comic stories of migrants to diverse audiences, through images that provoked feeling amongst people of every culture.

Films have the power to show different facets of life, which can in turn help viewers to cultivate deeper empathy for migrants and a better understanding of their realities, needs, perspectives and capacities.

The objective of the GMFF is to use films as educational tools that influence perceptions of and attitudes towards migrants, by bringing attention to social issues and creating safe spaces for respectful debate and interaction.

Furthermore, the Festival is an innovative creative avenue for normalizing discussions of migration through storytelling, and it is an advocacy tool that can also draw attention to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus helping all nations as they work to meet them.

Professional and emerging filmmakers are invited to submit films about the migrant experience according to the established theme.

The Promise and Challenge of Migration, and the Positive Contributions Migrants Make to Their New Communities. A committee of international film professionals will select a number of outstanding productions to be screened for a diverse audience: thousands of people in almost 100 countries.

The screenings will take place in varied locales, from cinemas to concert halls, and even impromptu settings in hard to reach areas and along popular migration routes such as the trans-Sahara corridor.