Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival wrapped up its ninth edition on Friday, after nine days of screenings, industry events and a closing night that saw grand prizes handed out across the Middle East and beyond.
Mohammed Hammad’s psychological drama “Safe Exit,” about a young Coptic security guard in Cairo confronting the trauma of religious violence, won the Gold Star award for best narrative. Ahmed Hassouna’s “Citizen Osama,” about a Gazan photojournalist balancing his work with family life during the war, received the Gold Star award for both documentary and best Arab documentary. Anders Davidsen’s “Stolen Memories,” in which the discovery of childhood photographs causes an 18-year-old to question his past, won a Gold Star for short film. Rakan Mayasi’s film “No Sleep Yesterday”, set in the Bekaa Valley, was selected as the best Arab narrative, while Marie Rose Ousta’s film “A Sunrise”, about an 11-year-old boy living in Lebanon under the constant threat of warplanes, was selected as the best Arab short film.
Jordanian Rakeen Saad received the best actress award for Zaid Abu Hamdan’s film “Boomah”, while Jovan Ginić received the best actor award for Miroslav Terzić’s film “3 Weeks After”.
Here are my five takeaways from this year’s festival.
Industry Platform CineGouna Becomes the Main Event
“We want the industry to be our hero,” said Amr Mansi, co-founder and chief executive of El Gouna. Diversity ahead of this year’s festival.
The ninth edition fulfilled this ambition. More than 320 projects applied to CineGouna Funding; The 19 selected projects ultimately won more than $350,000 in 40 awards; Participants held more than 140 one-on-one meetings with companies, institutions and international festivals.
The activity went beyond financing. CineGouna now covers Financing; Forum, a program of panels, masterclasses and industry discussions; Market, which brings together filmmakers with companies and institutions; and Emerge, its initiative for young and emerging talent. This year it also launched Voices of Egypt, a development program for Egyptian filmmakers, and a series of inaugural laboratories for Arab television projects. CineGouna is as central to El Gouna’s identity as the films it shows.
Arab TV Seeks a Development Pipeline
CineGouna’s expansion into television also revealed a larger problem facing Arab television: There is an abundance of talent, but opportunities to develop and sell new programs are sorely lacking.
Egyptian veteran screenwriter and producer Mariam Naoum, who spearheaded the six-week CineGouna Series development lab, said: Diversity There is “huge, huge talent” in the region but only “three or four platforms” and creators are competing for limited outlets.
Producer and screenwriter Haitham Dabbour similarly noted that fewer platforms were making buyers more cautious, while director Mariam Abou Ouf warned that the business was “nearing a dead end.” The six projects selected for the inaugural laboratory came to El Gouna to introduce their series and meet potential industry partners in order to move the projects closer to production.
Displaced Filmmakers Need More Than a Platform
War and displacement continue to shape filmmaking in the Arab world; It affects not only the stories that make it to the big screen, but also the filmmakers trying to make a career.
Launched with the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the International Association of Emerging Film Talent, the first Safe Harbor MENA engaged four displaced filmmakers from the region in a program of education, project development and industry networking.
The initiative reframed support as providing filmmakers with the professional connections they needed to continue working, rather than offering them a platform to tell stories about displacement. “Citizen Osama’s” double victory is a powerful reminder of the conditions facing filmmakers in the region: director Ahmed Hassouna remains in Gaza.
Egyptian Filmmakers Push for More Creative Freedom
The grand prize for “Safe Exit” comes amid a broader conversation in El Gouna about the Egyptian industry in transition.
Producer Mohammad Mashish noted a young generation “with more freedom than before” and audiences being increasingly exposed to international cinema, but argued that the industry needed more time for development and script writing.
Producer-distributor Ziad Srouji put the challenge more succinctly: “Authenticity travels, generics do not.” Muhammad Mustapha, whose documentary “Big Boys Don’t Cry” premiered in El Gouna, similarly advocated for models that reduce financial risk while allowing filmmakers to take greater artistic risks.
The tension is becoming increasingly clear: Egyptian filmmakers are looking outside while wanting enough space to keep the work firmly rooted at home.
El Gouna Looks Beyond El Gouna
One of the festival’s most significant launches locally will largely take place after guests have gone home.
Cinema on Wheels is wrapping up three short films from this year’s program in Cairo with a free screening tour in Hurghada, Minya, Qena, Luxor and Aswan, accompanied by discussions with the audience.
“We are always exploring ways to expand the scope of the El Gouna Film Festival beyond just its duration and the town of El Gouna,” said artistic director Andrew Mohsen.
The effort to bring the program of a festival built in an affluent Red Sea resort to audiences elsewhere in Egypt is significantly expanding the festival’s reach. As Mansi puts it: “Cinema on Wheels is our way of connecting El Gouna to the rest of the country.”