The festival, which is scheduled to take place between 13 and 22 November, is headed by renowned actor Hussein Fahmy with Amir Ramses as its director.

The festival will offer its highest recognition, the Golden Pyramid Award for lifetime achievement, to Lebleba, an award-winning film actress, singer and entertainer.

Lebleba’s extensive repertoire encompasses 88 films and four TV drama hits. 

On the other hand, Lebleba took part as a festival jury member in six international film festivals, including Cairo International Film Festival, as well as 16 Arab film festivals.

The second Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to the legendary Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, who will also hold a masterclass that will follow the screening of his film Werckmeister Harmonies.

Tarr’s melancholic approach in most of his films was emphasised by the black and white picture and the slow long-shot scenes. His realistic approach was constantly attained by having his films mostly headlined by unprofessional actors, which added to the philosophical outlook that marked his outstanding repertoire of work.

The Faten Hamama Excellence Award will be awarded to Kamla Abu Zekri, an Egyptian film director whose extensive oeuvre encompasses several masterpiece films. The titles include Sana Oula Nasb, her film debut in 2004, followed by a plethora of films where she contributed as the film director and writer, namely: Malek we Ketaba (2005) and A’n El Eshq Wel Hawa (2006), Wahed Sefr (2009), 18 Days (2011), and Youm Lelsetat (2016).

Kamla Abu Zekri’s repertoire of TV drama was first initiated in 2004 in the sitcom 6 Medan El Tahrir, which was soon followed by Zat in 2013 and Segn El Nesa in 2014 that were headlined by Nelly Karim, and Wahet El Ghoroub in 2017.

In 2020, Abu Zekri collaborated one more time with Nelly Karim, the former recipient of CIFF’s Faten Hamama Award, in the drama hit “100 Wesh”, and recently in Betolou’ El Rouhin Ramadan 2022, which highlighted the daily struggles faced by women in the ISIS community.

The festival will present a large number of films across its official competition and other non-competitive segments.

Among the films to be screened within the International Competition are 19 B (Egypt) by Ahmad Abdalla; Alam (France, Tunisia, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Firas Khoury; The Astronaut (France) by Nicolas Giraud; Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (France, Canada, Netherlands, Luxembourg) by Pierre Földes; Bread and Salt (Poland) by Damian Kocur; Butterfly Vision (Ukraine, Czech, Croatia, Sweden) by Maksym Nakonechnyi; among others.

All films screened in this section are either world or MENA premieres, with many of the latter ones already awarded internationally.

The official International Competition's jury is headed by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. The jury will also include Egyptian cinematographer Nancy Abdelfattah, actress Swara Bhasker (India), composer Rageh Daoud (Egypt), actress Stefania Casini (Italy), filmmaker Joaquin Del Paso (Mexico), and actor Samir Guesmi (Morocco). 

Other segments including film screenings are Horizons of Arab Cinema, International Critics’ Week, Short Films, all of which represent CIFF's competitions.

The non-competitive segment includes screenings within the Official Selection - Out Of Competition, Special Screenings, International Panorama, Midnight Screenings, and Cairo Classics.

The Short Film Competition jury is headed by Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Frammartino, with members including Egyptian producer Ahmed Amer and actress Rim Turki (France/Tunisia).

The jury of Best Arab Film Award includes three members: actor Ahmed Magdy (Egypt), programmer Dorota Lech (Poland) and actress Nour (Lebanon).

The Horizons of Arab Cinema Competition's jury panel consists of actor Michel Kammoun (Lebanon), producer Moufida Fedhila (Tunisia) and costume designer Reem El Adl (Egypt).

The Critic’s Week jury includes writer Ben Sharrock (UK), actor Karim Kassem (Egypt) and film critic Houda Ibrahim (France).

The festival will also hold the 5th edition of the Cairo Industry Days (17-22 November). 

This year, the activities of CID shall encompass 13 events ranging between masterclasses, conversations, workshops, and panel discussions featuring prominent award-winning filmmakers and industry professionals from around the world. 

Among the masterclasses are those led by Hungarian filmmaker Tarr, the Festival’s Jury President Naomi Kawase, Ben Perry, the VFX Manager Netflix MENA & Africa, American Cinematographer Irvin Liu, Egyptian scriptwriter Mariam Naoum, among others.

The Cairo Industry Days will also feature the Cairo Film Connection.

In its 9th edition this year, the CFC focuses on supporting film projects in their many production phases.

This year, the CFC received 135 promising, original and powerful projects from all around the Arab world. Accordingly, new bright talents were discovered, along with established filmmakers who continue to surprise us. This year, 15 projects from 10 countries were selected, between development and post-production. Five of them are from Egypt.