Next year’s Aswan Women Film festival will commemorate 10 years since the death of iconic Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine with a session exploring his portrayal of women.

The second edition of the festival will take place from 20 February to 26 February in the Upper Egyptian city.

The festival’s director, Mohamed Abdelkhalek, has said that the festival will host a seminar titled “Women in Youssef Chahine’s Cinema,” that will look at how the director portrayed women and their issues in many of his films.

The seminar will feature directors Gaby Khoury, Yousry Nasrallah, Khaled Youssef, Sherif Mandour, as well as other speakers who have worked with Chahine in various capacities behind the camera.

Abdelkhalek said in a report on Al-Ahram Arabic website that Chahine’s interest in women as subjects was present his first film Baba Amin, starring Faten Hamama and Mary Monib, and that women continued to play a central role in his films, including in his autobiographical quartet: Alexandria Why, An Egyptian Story, Alexandria Again and Again, and Alexandria New York.

“We are celebrating Chahine as one of the filmmakers that have raised Egyptian cinema to international acclaim, as well as his support for women and their issues,” Abdelkhalek said.

The guest of honour at the second edition of the festival will be Djamila Bouhired, an Algerian nationalist who opposed French colonial rule.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture