Prominent Egyptian critic Kamal Ramzy has been unveiled as the new supervisor of the 23rd National Film Festival, succeeding director Samir Saif,who passed away in December, the culture ministry said on Monday.

Ramzy has had a large number of contributions in the field of Arab and Egyptian cinema writings since he graduated from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in 1968.

Among his writings are 'The Egyptian Man on Screen', ' Saad Nadim', 'ThePioneer of Documentary Cinema', 'Art between Imamaand the State', 'Salah El-Tohamy', 'The Era of Optimism', 'Mahmoud Morsi Asfour', and 'Paradise and Hell'.

Ramzy was a jury member in many Egyptian and Arab film festivals recently, heading the jury of the46th edition of the Egyptian Film Society Festival,which wrapped up last week.

Under Seif,the last edition of the National Film Festival,organised by the Cultural Development Fund, had four main sections: feature length films, short films, documentaries, and animation, where dozens of films competed in each section, which included a large number of directorial debuts.

Seif, who also had a few scriptwriting experiences, directed many well-known films with stars including Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif, Farid Shawky, Soad Hosni, and Ahmed Zaki.

His popular films include Qetta Ala Nar (1977), Gharib Fi Baity (1982), El-Mashboh (1983), El-Halfout (1985), El-Nemr wal-Ontha (1987), El-Moulid (1989), El-Shaitana Allaty Ahabatny (1990), Shams El-Zanaty (1991), Maaly El-Wazir (2002), and Deil El-Samaka (2003).

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