Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival heads into its ninth edition with a mix of major international titles, including Cannes prize winners “All of a Sudden” and “Ben’imana,” major star power, and the Red Sea glitz woven into its DNA.
Co-founder and executive director Amr Mansi wants to expand upon those founding elements, broadening GFF’s industry ambitions and establishing new partnerships in its push to become a major player in the regional film space beyond the annual nine-day event.
“We want the industry to be our hero,” Mansi stresses in an interview with Variety. “We’re trying to build the ecosystem with filmmakers, creators and everyone in the industry, but at the same time balancing it with the glam, etc. At the end of the day, commercial partners are needed to keep the festival alive to showcase filmmakers.”
That expansion continues to evolve, with CineGouna, the festival’s industry arm, growing across financing, talent development and its market, while moving into television and streaming series for the first time this year.
CineGouna Funding received more than 310 submissions from across the Arab world, selecting 13 projects in development and six films in post-production. A new Egyptian Voices initiative adds four homegrown projects receiving support in pitching, packaging and co-production. Proposed by Egyptian screenwriter and CineGouna Forum head Mariam Naoum, CineGouna Series drew more than 125 submissions for six spots in its new development lab and industry market.
Running alongside GFF’s expanding industry ambitions is its longstanding “Cinema for Humanity” mission, reflected, for example, in the newly launched Safe Harbour MENA initiative, which brings four displaced filmmakers from the region to El Gouna for training and networking. “We are trying to be the voice for the people who don’t have a voice, a place to share, to tell their stories,” Mansi emphasizes.
CineGouna dates back to GFF’s inaugural edition in 2017 and has grown to include funding, a forum, a market and an emerging talent program, with new initiatives planned for its landmark tenth edition next year.
For Mansi, the push to establish GFF as an industry hub and expand its regional and international reach ultimately serves the more tangible goal of funding more filmmakers and their projects.
“I believe with our positioning, we can increase the amount of money that we get every year to be able to support more filmmakers and more perspectives,” he asserts.
Commercial partners are increasingly part of that equation. Mansi points to sponsors providing direct grants and channeling more of the festival’s commercial backing straight to filmmakers. “This was never a conversation that I could have dreamed of five, six years ago,” he reflects.
GFF is also building long-term partnerships with festivals abroad. In August, it announced a strategic partnership with the Zurich Film Festival focused on collaboration across programming, as well as exchanging and recommending films, talent, and jury members. Mansi hopes to establish similar collaborations elsewhere, helping emerging talent move more easily between festivals, make industry connections, and create opportunities for career growth internationally.
With more festivals competing for films, projects and talent across the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa), Mansi says the proximity of El Gouna’s venues offers the advantage of screenings, meetings and networking happening within minutes of one another, a departure from many international festivals.
The festival is also drawing a larger audience each year. GFF sold more than 40,000 tickets and issued more than 7,000 accreditations last year, Mansi says, with attendance up 30% from the previous edition. Its 1,400-seat outdoor plaza was full each day of the festival, a level of turnout he notes GFF had never previously seen.
Mansi also wants the El Gouna Film Festival to reach audiences who may never make it to its Red Sea locale. An agreement with Cairo arthouse cinema Zawya brings part of its program to the capital as the festival runs miles and miles away. Official broadcast partner Al Nahar Television Network, meanwhile, is set to provide daily coverage of festival activities across Egypt. GFF will also stream selected panels and masterclasses on its digital platforms, part of a broader push to make the festival and its industry conversations more accessible beyond El Gouna to the wider Egyptian public and beyond.
Those efforts feed into a longer-term plan to expand El Gouna’s regional and global footprint beyond its annual festival. With its tenth edition on the horizon, Mansi wants to build a year-round film and industry meeting place that can support filmmakers, connect industry players, and extend GFF’s reach long after each edition ends.