Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival wrapped its ninth edition Friday after nine days of screenings, industry activity and a closing night that spread its top prizes across the Middle East and beyond.
Mohammed Hammad’s “Safe Exit,” a psychological drama about a young Coptic security guard in Cairo confronting trauma rooted in religious violence, won the Golden Star for best narrative feature. Ahmed Hassouna’s “Citizen Osama,” following a Gaza photojournalist balancing his work with family life amid war, took both the Golden Star for documentary and best Arab documentary. Anders Davidsen’s “Stolen Memories,” in which the discovery of childhood photographs leads an 18-year-old to question his past, won the Golden Star for short film. Rakan Mayasi’s Bekaa Valley-set “Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep” was named best Arab narrative, while Marie Rose Ousta’s “One Day Born,” about an 11-year-old boy living under the constant threat of warplanes in Lebanon, took best Arab short.
Jordan’s Rakeen Saad won best actress for Zaid Abu Hamdan’s “Boomah,” while Jovan Ginić took best actor for Miroslav Terzić’s “3 Weeks After.”
Here are five takeaways from this year’s festival.
CineGouna, the Industry Platform, Is Becoming the Main Event
“We want the industry to be our hero,” El Gouna co-founder and executive director Amr Mansi told Variety ahead of this year’s festival.
The ninth edition made good on that ambition. More than 320 projects applied to CineGouna Funding, with 19 selected projects ultimately receiving more than $350,000 across 40 awards, while participants held more than 140 one-on-one meetings with companies, institutions and international festivals.
The activity extended beyond financing. CineGouna now encompasses Funding; Forum, a program of panels, masterclasses and industry discussions; Market, which connects filmmakers with companies and institutions; and Emerge, its initiative for young and emerging talent. This year also brought Egyptian Voices, a development program for Egyptian filmmakers, and an inaugural Series lab for Arab television projects into the fold. CineGouna is becoming as central to El Gouna’s identity as the films it screens.
Arab TV Is Searching for a Development Pipeline
CineGouna’s expansion into television also highlighted a wider problem confronting Arab television: there’s an abundance of talent, but opportunities to develop and sell new shows are sorely lacking.
Veteran Egyptian screenwriter and producer Mariam Naoum, who spearheaded the six-week CineGouna Series development lab, told Variety there are “great, great talents” in the region, but only “three or four platforms,” leaving creators competing for limited outlets.
Producer and screenwriter Haitham Dabbour similarly noted that fewer platforms make buyers more cautious, while director Mariam Abou Ouf warned that the business is “approaching a deadlock.” The six projects selected for the inaugural lab came to El Gouna to pitch their series and meet potential industry partners, with the aim of moving the projects closer to production.
Displaced Filmmakers Need More Than a Platform
War and displacement continue to shape filmmaking across the Arab world, affecting not only the stories reaching screens but the filmmakers trying to build careers.
The first Safe Harbour MENA, launched with the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the International Emerging Film Talent Association, brought four filmmakers displaced within the region into a program of training, project development and industry networking.
The initiative reframed support less as simply offering filmmakers a platform to tell stories about displacement than giving them the professional connections needed to continue working. “Citizen Osama’s” double win offered a potent reminder of the circumstances confronting filmmakers in the region: director Ahmed Hassouna remains in Gaza.
Egyptian Filmmakers Are Pushing for More Creative Freedom
“Safe Exit’s” top prize landed amid a broader conversation at El Gouna about an Egyptian industry in transition.
Producer Mohammad Mashish pointed to a younger generation with “more freedom than before” and audiences increasingly exposed to international cinema, but argued that the industry needs more time for development and screenwriting.
Producer-distributor Ziad Srouji put the challenge more succinctly: “Specificity travels, generic does not.” Muhammad Mustapha, whose documentary “Big Boys Don’t Cry” premiered at El Gouna, similarly argued for models that lower financial risk while allowing filmmakers to take greater artistic risks.
The tension is increasingly clear: Egyptian filmmakers are looking outward while asking for enough room to make work rooted firmly at home.
El Gouna Looks Beyond El Gouna
One of the festival’s most locally significant launches will take place largely after its guests have gone home.
Cinema on Wheels is taking three shorts from this year’s lineup on a free screening tour through Hurghada, Minya, Qena, Luxor and Aswan before concluding in Cairo, accompanied by discussions with audiences.
“We’re always exploring ways to increase the reach of El Gouna Film Festival beyond just its duration and the town of El Gouna,” artistic director Andrew Mohsen explained.
For a festival built in an affluent Red Sea resort, the effort to bring its programming to audiences elsewhere in Egypt significantly expands its reach. As Mansi put it: “Cinema on Wheels is our way of connecting El Gouna to the rest of the country.”