Abdel-Sayed, 75, will not be able to attend the festival due to health issuers, as he announced to media outlets last week, expressing “his gratitude for the honoring from a festival he values”.

The prestigious Tunisian festival will screen two of the most important works of Abdel-Sayed: Looking for Sayed Marzouk (1991) and Citizen, Informer, and Thief (2001).

The Egyptian filmmaker, who announced his retirement earlier this year, is one of the pioneers of  new realism in Egyptian cinema.

His repertoire also includes such notable films as KitKat’ (1991), Ard Al-Khouf (1999), Rasa’el Al-Bahr (2010), and Qodourat Gheir Adeya (2014).

Other honourees at the festival  include Moroccan filmmaker Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Tazi, Ivorian actress Naky Sy Savané and late Algerian film director Yamina Bachir, as well as two late Tunisian artists: actor Hicham Rostom and screenwriter Kalthoum Bornaz.

“The 33rd edition of Carthage Film Festival is honored to pay tribute to the pioneers who have left their mark on our cinema through their creativity, commitment and intelligence. Their experience has been edifying for a whole generation,” stated the JCC organizers through their official website.

“This tribute is paid to the living as well as to those who have left us. If our recognition is addressed to them today, it is because they were able to draw stars in our hearts; it is because they remained dignified and proud until the end. One of their common denominators is that they are all children of the JCC. Those who have left us will be celebrated in the presence of their relatives and friends, and those who are still with us will share their still-vibrant emotions with the public and extend the glory of the festival through the films they will present, the memories they will share and the memory of which they are the guardians,” the festival added.

Under its new director Sonia Chemki, the festival will showcase 599 movies from 72 countries, with Saudi Arabia as the guest of honour.

Egypt is strongly represented at the 33rd edition of the prestigious festival, with six films in the official competition.

The festival will host talks, workshops and exhibitions, and will organise screenings of dozens of films through a number of other  programmes running parallel to the festival. These programmes include  On the Road, Focus Palestine, Focus Espagne, Cinemas of the World, Horizons of Tunisian Cinema, Ciné Avenue, JCC in Prisons, JCC in Barracks and other programs.