“We are announcing today that Egyptian cinema icon Yousra will receive GOLD YUSR Honorary Awards at the opening ceremony of the Festivals’ second edition in Jeddah,” stated the festival’s organisers through their website on Monday.

A United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Art and Sciences , Yousra is one of the most renowned artists in the Arab World with a 50-year career in which she starred in over 100 films and TV series.

Beloved throughout the Arab world, Yousra, 67, whose real name is Civene Naseem, has carved a niche for herself in the cinema industry since she began acting in the 1970s.

She was discovered by director of photography Abdel-Halim Nasr and went on to appear in films directed by renowned filmmakers such as Henry Barakat, Youssef Chahine Mohamed Khan and Khairy Beshara.

She collaborated with some of the most important actors like Adel Emam, Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Rushdi Abazah, Samir Ghanem, Nour El-Sherif, and many others.

Some of her most memorable roles include the ones she played in An Egyptian Story (1982), Raafat Al-Haggan (1988), El-Erhab We El-Kabab (1992), El-Avocato (1983), The Immigrant (1994), Toyour El-Zalam (1995), The Storm (2000), Alexandria New York (2004), The Yacoubian Building (2006) and Saheb El-Maqam (2020), to name but a few.

The RSIFF has announced that it will screen 131 feature films and shorts from 61 countries in 41 languages, including 34 world premieres, 17 Arab premieres and 47 Middle East and North Africa premieres.