Amir Ramses [L] and Hala Galal [R]
Egyptian filmmakers Amir Ramses and Hala Galal will sit in the jury of the first Jerusalem Festival for Arab Cinema (JFAC) which will take place between 20 and 24 January 2021.
Amir Ramses will be in the jury of the Feature Film competition, alongside Mai Masri from Palestine, and Swedish Palestinian Jury President Mohamad Keblawi.
Born in 1979, Ramses directed numerous short films and documentaries. He also worked as an assistant director and producer in several independent films. He is best known for directing the two-part documentary Jews of Egypt and the feature film Betawqit Al-Qahera (Cairo Time).
His most recent film, Curfew, participated in the 42nd Cairo International Film Festival’s official competition. The film earned Ilham Shahine the Best Actress Award, which she shared with Natalya Pavlenkova for her role in Conference.
Ramses is also an artistic director of the Gouna Film Festival.
Hala Galal will be among the jury of JFAC’s Documentary Film competition, sitting besides Zeina Daccache and the Jury President Hady Zaccak from Lebanon.
Born in 1966, Director and Producer Galal directed several documentary films, including Women's Chitchat, for which she received a silver award for best documentary at the 4th Arab Film Festival in Rotterdam in 2005.
Galal also directed Time Out, The Cities Choose Her Death, Unusual Garden, Journey, and People's Affairs. She also produced a number of films, including Colors of Love, directed by Ahmad Ghanem; The Door, directed by Abdel-Fattah Kamal; and Beirut Take-1, directed by Ahmad Rashwan.
Galal is a co-founder and executive director of SEMAT Production & Distribution.
Organised by Art Lab, and located in East Jerusalem, Palestine, the festival will screen numerous films from Arab countries.
Several Egyptian films will compete for the awards, including When We’re Born by Tamer Ezzat in the Feature Film competition.
The Short Film competition will screen a total of eight films, four of which are Egyptian productions: Extra Safe by Nouran Sherif, I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face by Sameh Alaa, Sunday at Five by Sherif Elbendary, and Ward’s Henna Party by Morad Mostafa.
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