Khaled el Sawy: I was wondering why people cry after being honored now I know the reason

CAIRO - 31 October 2020: Egyptian star Khaled el Sawy received Career Acheivment Award at the closing ceremony of El Gouna Film Festival.

“ I am happy that I will present the Career Achievement Award to a great actor” said GFF’s COO Bushra.

“ I was wondering why people cry after being honored now I know the reason”  El Sawy said after receiving his trophy.

El Sawy thanked Ministry of Health, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Interior and Red Sea governorate for their help in this edition.

The fourth edition of El Gouna Film Festival organized a press conference for Egyptian veteran actor Khaled El Sawy in the Festival Plaza on the occasion of his Career Achievement Award on October 29.

“This is the best thing that has ever happened to me!” El Sawy said about his honoring from El Gouna Film Festival.

El Sawy described GFF 2020 as the Champions Edition. 

“Egypt is a big country who has great heritage in art, so we need to be leaders in what we’re offering, not followers... and we can do that by discussing the important, major issues through the Egyptian cinema, with movies that reflect our Arab identity,” he added.

He also spoke about the precautionary measures that are being taken all over the coastal town of El Gouna to protect the festival guests and participants from coronavirus. 

“ The management of El Gouna Film Festival are cinema industry champions because they hold the festival despite everything that’s happening in the world due to the Coronavirus” El Sawy added. 

Pertaining to his artistic career, El Sawy said that he carries the responsibility for all of his choices. 

And although he sometimes may feel intimidated to perform certain new roles, like the hesitation he experienced before accepting the roles in “ Omaret Yacoubian” (The Yacoubian Building) and “ El Feel el Azra’a” (The Blue Elephant) he was certain that he would have regretted if he hadn’t performed it.

Khaled El Sawy is a renowned Egyptian actor born in Alexandria in 1964.

He received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Cairo University in 1985, and then a BA in film directing from the Academy of Arts in 1993.
El Sawy began his artistic career on the stage of the university theater, while he was studying law.

He co-founded the Egyptian Foundation for Theater Enthusiasts, wrote and directed several theater works, and won the Timor Prize for Theatrical Creativity in 1991 and 1992.

Throughout his career, El Sawy acted with different generations of Egyptian directors, such as Mohamed Khan in Knight of the City (1991), Khairy Beshara in Hazelnut Shells (1995), and Marwan Hamed in The Yacoubian Building (2006) and The Originals (2017). He also worked with director Sherif Arafa in Al Jazeera (2007), and with Tarek Al Eryan in Sons of Rizk 2 (2019).
El Sawy received many honors in the fields of cinema, theater, and poetry.
Dubai Cultural Magazine honored him in the field of poetry, the Supreme Council of Culture granted him an award in theatrical composition, and he received the honor of the Tétouan International Mediterranean Film Festival in Morocco in its 23rd edition in 2017.

Additionally, El Sawy received a prize for his role in the film Keda Reda (2007) at the Alexandria International Film Festival, as well as several Egyptian and Arab prizes for his role in The Yacoubian Building (2006).

The 4th edition of El Gouna Film Festival honored four names in the world of film. They are the renowned Khaled El Sawy; iconic production designer Onsi Abou Seif; international Moroccan film star Saïd Taghmaoui; and the established French actor Gerard Depardieu.