Cairo's only art house cinema Zawya – closed since the beginning of July – is set to reopen its doors at downtown's Odeon Cinema on Wednesday 20 August.

The cinema is yet to announce which films will open the fall season.

The initiative, launched in March 2014, is run by Misr International Films (MIF), the film company founded by the famed Egyptian director Youssef Chahine.

MIF says it hopes to expand Zawya to other neighbourhoods and governorates.

Since its inception, Zawya has screened films from Egypt's independent film movement as well as international selections that have garnered critical acclaim elsewhere but have never appeared in Egyptian cinemas.

In Zawya's first six months, it has hosted films such as Saudi's Wadjda, Belgian production Henri, Palestinian Giraffada, the Egyptian critically acclaimed film Coming Forth By Day, Jim Jarmuch's Only Lovers Left Alive and Iranian Oscar winning director Asghar Farhadi's The Past, which also screened in Alexandria.

The cinema has hosted special events such as a week-long retrospective for Syrian director Mohamed Malas, a film week for ARTE films as well as four days of screenings of short independent Egyptian films.