The awards were announced during the CineGouna closing ceremony at El-Gouna's Theatre Plaza on 31 October. The industry events are part of the 7th edition of the El-Gouna Film Festival (GFF), which runs from 24 October to 1 November.

The 12 winners are films in production by directors from the Arab world, chosen from dozens of projects submitted to CineGouna this year.

The Egyptian winners include projects by Jad Chahine, Hend Bakr, Ayman El-Amir, and Mohamed Zedan, as well as the winners of the CineGouna Short Awards.

The latter category included an award of EGP 1,000,000 for In Such Moments, We Cry, directed by Ahmed Sobhy; EGP 750,000 for The Last Wish, directed by Hozifa Abdelhalim; and EGP 500,000 for Lemon Trees by Mariam Nasser.
 

Jad Chahine's The Masters of Magic and Beauty was among the projects that scored the highest number of awards.

Produced by renowned Egyptian filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah, the film received cash awards from the CineGouna Platform and Lagoonie Film Production totalling $25,000, in addition to an invitation to the Film Independent Residency in Los Angeles from the American Embassy and Film Independent.

Egyptian filmmaker Jad Chahine studied filmmaking at the Higher Institute of Cinema, graduating in 2018.

He has been working as an assistant director and casting director for Yousry Nasrallah before making his short film, The Call of the Brook (2023). The film was nominated for the Cinéfondation Award at the Cannes Film Festival and as Best Short Film at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.
 

Another Egyptian project winning several awards is Dwellers of the Cabins, written and directed by Hend Bakr.

Produced by Tamer Nady and Hend Bakr, before its win at CineGouna, the film had already garnered awards at international festivals, including a grant from the Amman Film Industry Days (AFID).

At CineGouna, the film was awarded a $5,000 cash grant and an invitation to a French film festival from the French Embassy and French Institute.

Bakr is known for Odet El Feran (2013), a feature-length film nominated for several international awards, and the documentary short Tedious Tour of M (2023), which won a Special Jury Mention for Humanity and Continuity at a Russian festival.

Filmmaker Ayman El-Amir received cash grants from ESLSCA University and the Arab Radio & Television (ART), totalling $20,000 for his film Dark Corner of the Moon, marking one of his first directorial experiences.

El-Amir, a scriptwriter and producer, established his production company, Felucca Films, in Egypt in 2016. Among the company's most successful works is Nada Riyadh's The Brink of Dreams, which won a Golden Eye award at the Cannes Film Festival 2024.

Egyptian director Mohamed Zedan was invited to a French film festival by the French Embassy and French Institute for his project The Cow Thief.

Prior to his directorial debut, Zedan worked as a Second Unit or Assistant Director in films such as Odet El Feran (2013) and I Have A Picture: Film No. 1001 in the Life of the Oldest Extra in the World (2017) and was involved in the multi-award-winning film Microphone (2010).

Another Egyptian director to win an award is Namir Abdel Messeeh, who received a $5,000 cash grant from the Red Sea Foundation for his film La Vie d’Apres (Life After Siham), which was co-produced by a French company.

France-based Abdel Meseeh is a Paris-educated filmmaker known for short films such as You, Waguih (2005), Quelque chose de mal (Something Evil, 2005), and La Vierge, les Coptes et moi (2011), with the latter nominated for several awards and winning the Audience Jury Award at Nyon Visions du Réel 2012.

The Red Sea Foundation has also offered the same awards to two more Arab creators: Lebanese Leila Basma for her project Running with Beasts and Palestinian Mohammed Almughanni for Son of the Streets.

Lebanese Michelle Keserwany's film Amara and Saudi Arabian director Lama Jamjoom's Remind Me to Forget have each received $50,000 as an MG for sales and distribution from MAD Solutions. Jamjoom was also offered $10,000 worth of full promotion package services from Shift Studios.

Other awards distributed during the CineGouna ceremony included projects by Tunisian director Mehdi Hmili's The Sound of Egypt: Exile (a total of $25,000 in grants), Yemeni writer and director Youssef Assabahi's Al-Madeeneh 2008 ($5,000 worth of Script Development Services from Sard), and Libyan-US filmmaker Jihan's My Father and Qaddafi (CineGouna Platform Award of $15,000 in cash).