The Higher Committee for Festivals, headed by Ines Abdel Dayem, Egypt's minister of culture, has approved the launch of a new festival, the Alexandria Francophone Film Festival, which will take place in June 2020 in Alexandria.

The first such festival to take place in the Arab region, the event will be chaired by Samir Sabri, a well known actor who himself hails from the Mediterranean city.

Organised in cooperation with the International Organisation of the Francophonie (IOF, established in 1970) and bodies representing the organisation in Egypt, the festival will celebrate the IOF's 50th jubilee which falls on 2020.

Egyptian actress Laila Elwi is the festival's honorary president while the event's commitee brings together numerous creative figures such as writers Mohamed Salmawy and Sherif Al-Shobashi (former president of the Cairo International Film Festival), actress Lobna Abdel Aziz, TV presenters Sanaa Mansour and Salma Al-Shammaa, and others.

The festival's main host will be the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandria Library).