CAIRO – 30 November 2019: The closing ceremony of the 41st edition of Cairo International Film Festival concluded its events on Friday, November 29.
Famed Egyptian star Laila Elwi started her speech by welcoming all the festival
attendees.
‘’I have to admit that this edition is one of the most important editions in the history of the festival, congratulations Cairo on this festival’’ Elwi added.
The closing ceremony host Jasmine Taha Zaki praised the great effort exerted by CIFF team headed by Mohamed Hefzy
CIFF head Mohamed Hefzy said that the festival team didn’t sleep for 10 days to organize this edition.
‘’I thank all those who supported this festival and the ministry of culture’’ Hefzy said
Hefzy added that CIFF team consists of over 200 employees and he thanked all of them.
CIFF head thanked as well the acting artistic director Ahmed Shawky and the executive director Omar Kassem, adding that this edition witnessed the attendance of large number of audience and they sold 40000 cinema tickets this edition. ‘’ I am proud of this edition’’ Hezy said
Jasmine Taha Zaki asked the jury members to come on stage.
‘’ We have an ancient and wide cinematic history’’ said famed Egyptian actress and the jury member of the Cinema of Tomorrow competition, Hanan Motawie.
Motawie added that the strongest part of cinema is the short movies
‘’Thank you CIFF for giving us the opportunity to watch 17 movies’’ famed Egyptian actress and jury member Sherine Reda said.
Nathalie Emmanuel: I don’t how to speak Arabic but I learned only few words “ Baheb Masr”
Famed English actress Nathalie Emmanuel came on stage and gave Youssef Sherif Rizkallah award ( the audience award) to the Egyptian director Marianne Khoury on her documentary “Let’s Talk”.
‘’I don’t how to speak Arabic but I learned only few words (Baheb Masr)’’ Emmanuel said.
‘’It is a great honor to me to receive the audience award’’ Khoury said.
The 41st edition of Cairo International Film Festival honoured Lebanese director Nadine Labaki.
‘’Despite all the critical circumstances in Lebanon I insisted to come because this award is
so dear to me’’ Labaki said.
Hefzy gave acclaimed Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro his honouring award.
‘’We sometimes honour filmmakers who are behind the camera’’ Hefzy said.
At the beginning of his speech Storaro spoke about how he started his cinematic career, revealing
That he used to love watching Charlie Chaplin movies.
‘’I read a lot about Egypt and learnt about it, Egypt has a wide history and culture’’ Storaro said.
The head of the international competition Stephane Gaghan thanked Egypt, Cairo,
Cairo festival and Hefzy.
Cairo International Film Festival kicked off on November 20.
The Red Sea International Film Festival, in partnership with the Cairo International Film Festival, decided to give the opportunity to a group of Arab filmmakers working on a project from Cairo Film Connection to participate in the first edition of the Red Sea International Film Market hosted by the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from March 13-16, 2020.
This edition housed a lot of surprises, seminars, panels and workshops executed by its creative filmmaker Mohamed Hefzy, acting artistic director Ahmed Shawky and its executive director Omar Kassem.
This edition honoured renowned Egyptian filmmakers Sherif Arafa at the festival opening ceremony.
The visionary and Legendary director, screenwriter, actor and animator, Terry Gilliam was honoured as well with a Faten Hamama Award.
Gilliam received the accolade during the opening ceremony of the festival at the Cairo Opera House.
“The Irishman” was the festival opening movie and Mexico was chosen to be the country in focus of this edition.
Cairo International Film Festival becomes the first Arab festival and second African to sign the Gender Parity Pledge 5050×2020, joining this commitment launched during Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
The festival is committed to promote gender equality and transparency, during its 42nd edition in November 2020.
Egyptian star Sherine Reda was a jury member in Best Arab Film Award, famed Egyptian actress Hanan Motawie was a jury member in Cinema of Tomorrow jury and Egyptian Hearthrob actress Hana Shiha was a jury member in Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition.
The 41st edition of Cairo International Film Festival is dedicated to the festival artistic director the late great film critic Youssef Sherif Rizakallah.
The festival prepared screened a documentary about Rizakallah entitled ‘’ Rizk el Cinema’’ to honour his long fruitful cinematic career that enriched Egyptian cinema.
DMC channels sponsors Cairo International Film Festival's 41st edition. DMC broadcast provides its audience with daily messages of the festival.
DMC channels has introduced new coverage methods to convey the real atmosphere of the festival’s events from inside the cinemas. The channel presented a diversified program of the festival's events and highlights daily events through news broadcast on the screen and on social media platforms.
During the period from Nov. 21 to 26, the festival held the second edition of Cairo Industry Days, which provided professionals with opportunities for partnership and networking with the international film community, in addition to attending seminars, workshops and discussion panels.
Valuable prizes was awarded to winning film projects in the development and post-production stages, which are valued up at $200,000. Mexico was chosen to be the country in focus of this edition.
The 41st edition of Cairo International Film Festival granted famed American actor Billy Zane Special Tribute Award on Wednesday, November 26. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has awarded the festival the OSCAR qualifying film festival status.
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