Present at the press conference were founder of El Gouna and Chairman of the GFF Board of Directors Samih Sawiris, Festival founder and Chairman of Orascom Investment Holding S.A.E Naguib Sawiris, actress and  member of GFF’s International Advisory Board Youssra, Executive Director and Co-founder of GFF Amr Mansi, GFF’s Artistic Director, filmmaker and producer Marianne Khoury, CEO of Orascom Development Holding Omar El-Hamamsy.

The conference was presented by Deputy Executive Director of the Festival Sarah Bissada, who revealed the details of the activities of the upcoming edition. Mansi then gave a talk in which he expressed solidarity with the Lebanese people following the Israeli aggression in Lebanon.

He went on, “I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all media representatives and journalists who have been a vital partner in the success of the festival since its launch. Last year we decided to place all our events into one central hub, El Gouna Plaza, to make the most of the interaction between filmmakers, audience and the media throughout the day.

“GFF’s commitment to supporting the Arab film industry has been unwavering from the first year and the success of our Film Market, launched last year, which contributed to greater production partnerships, has expanded significantly in the upcoming edition, which will see the participation of 22 companies from various Arab countries, marking a significant increase from the previous year. This success gives us the confidence that we are heading in the right direction.”

Mansi expressed his happiness with the CineGouna Emerge, an initiative introduced by Khoury during the sixth edition, and supported this year by the Drosos Foundation and the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development – which has evolved from a single program to an umbrella housing all of the festival’s young and emerging talent programmes.

Khoury, for her part, opened with a reference to last year’s press conference, where her speech was somewhat long, vowing not to speak for more than five minutes. She uncovered an exciting lineup: “Our film programme showcases a diverse selection of 71 films from 40 countries, including 55 feature-length narratives and documentaries and 16 short films. Forty-four per cent of these films are directed by women, and 13 per cent represent directorial debuts or second features.”

Highlights include the Lithuanian film Toxic directed by Saulè Bliuvaitè, which received the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival; the Chinese film Stranger directed by Zhengfan Yang, winner of the Grand Prix of the Proxima Competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, which received the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival; the German film Dying by Matthias Glasner, which won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin International Film Festival. GFF is also screening Mohamed Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which received the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes Film Festival.

The Egyptian short film  Akher Al-Mujizat (The Last Miracle), directed by Abdel-Wahab Shawki, makes its world premiere as the opening film.

“We are proud to offer the world premieres of three feature-length films and three short films,” Khoury added. These include Egyptian short film  Akher Al-Mujizat, the festival’s opening film. “We are also excited to present the recently rebranded, vital initiative CineGouna Funding, dedicated to fostering emerging Arab filmmakers and facilitating their access to artistic and financial support for their projects.”

Out of 230 submissions, 21 projects were selected: 11 in development (seven narratives, six documentaries) ten in post-production (four narratives, four documentaries) from 13 Arab countries, featuring co-productions with producers from nine additional countries. Projects and films in post-production were awarded  $360,000 in prizes, but with the support of GFF’s partners and sponsors, this year this amount is set to grow.

Another new development Khoury mentioned is the introduction of a new section under the name CineGouna Shorts, to specialise in supporting short films through cash prizes. For the second consecutive year, the festival will be screening a selection of its films at Zawya Cinema in Cairo at the same time as the events unfold in Gouna.

Khoury added, “The CineGouna Filmmakers Forum, headed by Mariam Naoum, will feature in-depth discussions about the film industry, in addition to holding training courses and workshops for film professionals. This is in addition to more expansions in the CineGouna Market headed by Mohamed Taymour and the Emerge programme headed by Hayat Aljowaily.”

Khoury announced that renowned actor Mahmoud Hemeida will be receiving the Creative Achievement Award as well as the Lebanese collaborative team Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, versatile artists known for intertwining various mediums like photography, video, installations, sculpture and cinema. Among their best known films are Memory Box, The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Race and A Perfect Day.

Khoury concluded her speech with a brief discussion of film restoration in the Arab world, announcing the screening of the restored version of Khairy Beshara’s Keshr Al-Bondok (Nutshell).

Youssra expressed her happiness with the launch of the seventh round: “I want to thank the media and the journalists who dealt with the festival last year not only as a red carpet event but focused on its depth and I really want to thank them for highlighting this side with us. I hope that we have a successful round for this year.”  

For his part Naguib Sawiris said, “I think we should be grateful that we can hold this round as, due to the current events, I think depression has been prevailing among us all. But we don’t blame ourselves for holding the festival for a very simple reason: our slogan since the first year of this festival was ‘Cinema for Humanity’ and we have succeeded in highlighting human issues around the world and from this angle it can always mirror our human conflicts, challenges and hardships and tragic events.”   

Samih Sawiris gave a very brief but enthusiastic speech: “I hope this round will be successful and I really wish that in 10 years we will be here as well and say that we hope to have a successful round.”

For his part El-Hamamsy joked back at Khoury’s joke, saying he will take no more than 15 minutes: “Partnering with GFF for its seventh edition reflects our commitment to creating vibrant and culturally rich destinations that making this festival one of other main events that we encourage and support and we also support it through other events like the music festival that took place in Makadi city this summer for the first time.” 

* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 October, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly