42nd Cairo Int'l Film Festival unveils jury members
Ahram Online, , Wednesday 25 Nov 2020
The jury of the festival's upcoming edition, scheduled between 2-10 December, features 22 filmmakers from across 16 countries


In its recent press release, the management of the 42nd Cairo International Film Festival, scheduled between 2-10 December, revealed the list of jury members in all categories.

To be held at the Cairo Opera House, this year's edition boasts 83 films from across 43 countries, including 20 world premieres. Listed below is a rundown of the festival's juries.

The International Competition

Jury President: Russian Director and scriptwriter Alexander Sokurov, one of Russia’s most celebrated filmmakers. His most remarkable works include Russian Ark, which was an official selection at Cannes 2002 and received the Visions Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in the same year. His film, Faust, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2011.

Jury Members:

Karim Aïnouz: An award-winning Brazilian filmmaker, screenwriter, and visual artist. His films received international awards, such as the un certain regard at Cannes in 2019 for his film The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao. He is a screenwriter tutor and member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Burhan Qurbani: A renowned German director whose shorts received several international awards. His feature films screened at world prestigious festivals including the Berlinale where his latest film Berlin Alexanderplatz was an official selection.

Gaby Khoury: An Egyptian producer, and the CEO of Misr International Films that was founded in 1972 by the late legendary Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine. He produced a wide variety of critically acclaimed films, documentaries, and TV series.

Lebleba: An award-winning Egyptian actress who made her first foray into acting at the age of five. Her extended repertoire includes 85 films that won her several awards for best actress.

Naian González Norvind: A Mexican multi-award-winning film, television, and theatre actress and writer. She received several awards for best actress from several international film festivals. Recently, she starred in Michel Franco's New Order, winner of the jury prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2020. The film will be screened at Cairo International Film Festival.

Najwa Najjar: A Palestinian filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced more than a dozen award-winning films that received wide critical acclaim. The films landed world premieres at Cairo, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, and Sundance. In 2020 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Horizons of Arab Cinema

Yosra El-Lozy: An Egyptian actress from an Egyptian father and a Syrian mother. She started her film career with veteran director Youssef Chahine when she was in high school, who picked her for a role in his film Alexandria... New York. The film was screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival in the un certain regard section in 2004. Her films include Alexandria... New York, True Colours, Heliopolis, and Microphone.

Ali Mostafa: An Emirati director and producer. His short film Under the Sun participated in the Emirati Films competition in 2006 and won best Emirati filmmaker in 2007. His feature film From A to B marks the first Emirati film to open the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Zeina Daccache: A Lebanese actress, writer, and director. Her documentary film 12 Angry Lebanese won the Arab Muhr award for best documentary at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2009. Among her films is Annie, featuring women inmates of Baabda prison where they shared their personal stories in an attempt to heal their wounds.

Critics Week

Ivan Ikić: A renowned Serbian director. He has made several shorts and documentaries that received several awards at international festivals, including Barbarians, which won the special jury prize in the East of the West program at Karlovy Vary Film Festival. His film Oasis premiered at the 77th Venice Film Festival in the Giornate Degli Autori section.

Mohamed Farrag: An Egyptian actor with a degree in Business from Cairo University. He started his career as an actor in College Theater in 2000. Throughout his career, Farrag has been nominated for numerous awards. In 2016, He was awarded the best actor award from the Egyptian National Film Festival for his role in Ot Wi Far. In 2019, He was awarded by the Egyptian Film Critics Association the best actor award for his role in El-Mamar.

Ola Al-Sheikh: Al-Shiekh is a Palestinian Jordanian journalist and film critic who writes for several Arab and foreign newspapers and websites, and a film programmer at various film festivals. She acted as a jury member in several film festivals.

Cinema of Tomorrow-International Competition for Short Films

Tizian Büchi: A film programmer and director from Switzerland. He graduated from the University of Lausanne, where he majored in cinema history and aesthetics; he also graduated from the Institut des Arts de Diffusion in Belgium, where he studied filmmaking. He worked as a programmer for several film festivals, including the Locarno Film Festival. His short films To the Top and The Sound of Winter have been selected and awarded at numerous international film festivals. He is currently editing his debut feature film L’ilot.

Riham Abdel-Ghafour: An Egyptian actress whose acting career began in several television series before she starred in the films Sehr El-Oyoun and Saheb Sahbo in 2000. She received several awards throughout her career. Her films include Malaky Eskendryia, Galatny Mogrem, Al-Khalia, and Sook Al-Goma.

Anissa Daoud: A Tunisian initially known as a multi-award-winning actress, then as a producer, and more recently a director. As a film director, she made the feature documentary Our Women in Politics and Society and the short film Best Day Ever, which opened the directors’ fortnight at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. She is currently developing the script of her first feature fiction film Les Immorteles.

Best Arab Film

Mochine Besri: A Moroccan director and writer. He co-wrote the film Opération Casablanca, before directing his debut feature Les Mécréants. His work includes other films like Laaziza and Une Urgence Ordinaire.

Mohammed Al-Omda: A Sudanese director and producer. He was appointed head of film programming at the Sudan Film Factory and a film programmer at the Sudan Independent Film Festival. Later he co-founded Station Films which co-produced You Will Die at Twenty. The film premiered at Venice and won the lion of the future award.

May Odeh: A Palestinian director and producer. Her films include Maradona's Legs, The Crossing, Drawing for Better Dreams. Her first feature film as producer 200 Meters debuted at the Venice Film Festival and was Jordan's official submission to the Oscar's best foreign language film.

FIPRESCI Award

Yacout Deeb: An Egyptian film critic and researcher who writes for many arts and culture magazines and specialized newspapers. He holds a PhD in film criticism from the Academy of Arts and has written a number of books in the field of cinema.

Elena Rubashevska: A Ukrainian Journalist and film critic. She worked as a director and screenwriter, creating media content for non-governmental organisations and socially responsible businesses. She is also a program coordinator of the OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival.

Anders E. Larsson: A critic, writer, editor, and producer from Sweden. Over the years, he has been editor-in-chief for culture magazines, and editor for the culture sections of several daily newspapers. Beginning next year, he will take over as the new festival director for Lund International Fantastic Film Festival, the oldest and foremost genre film festival in Sweden.

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