El Gouna Film Festival ’18 Reveals Details of its Second Edition
The El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) taking place in El Gouna, Egypt September 20 to 28 announced its film selection.
During their press conference attended by GFF founder Naguib Sawiris and El Gouna founder Samih Sawiris, Minister of Tourism Dr. Rania Al-Mashat under whose auspices the festival is held, a number of GFF’s International Advisory Board members, in addition to members of its international jury, and some of the directors, actors and producers of the participating films, Naguib Sawiris explaine the founding of this new festival which might possibly take up the slack caused by the cessation of the Dubai Film Festival:
We believe in the role art plays in the development of society and in challenging regressive ideas… that is why we established GFF.
This year, 15 films are participating in the Feature Narrative Competition, 12 films in the Feature Documentary Competition, 23 films in the Short Film Competition, as well as 5 films in GFF’s special retrospectives program. The festival will be screening 25 films Out of Competition, which brings the total count to 80 titles; 10 more films than its first edition. The festival will also last one day longer than last year, most of the films shown will be subtitled, and most screenings will include discussions with the filmmakers and cast in an attempt to create more engagement for film-loving audiences.
In addition, GFF will pay tributes to Youssef Chahine, Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman.
GFF commemorates the 10th anniversary of Chahine’s passing with an exhibition of his films’ posters and some of his belongings, in addition to a spectacle featuring scenes from his films accompanied by a live performance of selections from his films scores, played by a 50-piece orchestra led by Maestro Hisham Gabr.
The number of titles selected to participate in the festival’s industry hub, CineGouna Platform, has doubled, with 12 titles in development and 6 in post-production. The platform received 135 submissions; 110 in development and 35 in post-production. The total amount of CineGouna Platform awards rose from $60,000 last year to $150,000 this year of which GFF is providing $30,000, while the rest is provided by other cinema and media institutions..
CineGouna SpringBoard and CineGouna Bridge are the two arms of the festival’s industry hub CineGouna Platform and include the titles of the panel discussions, masterclasses and workshops taking place with the aim of continuing the platform’s quest to develop and support film talents from Egypt and the Arab world.
In its second edition, GFF is proud to grant its Creative Achievement Award to the iconic Egyptian director Daoud Abdel Sayed, and the Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha.
This year’s jury includes world-renowned Arab actor Ali Suliman, Egyptian film star Mona Zaki, acclaimed Moroccan director Ahmed El Maanouni, and newly-appointed Berlinale director Carlo Chatrian, Croatian producer Cedomir Kolar, Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, film programmer Ally Derks and Mike Pandey, a three-time Green Oscar winning filmmaker from India.
The jury also includes Georgian director Ana Urushadze; whose film Scary Mother won GFF’s Golden Star last year, Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak, Austrian programmer Doris Bauer, and Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha; who won the Best Actor Award at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
GFF’s management continues its cooperation with international entities, including its partnership with Variety. During the festival, Variety will be presenting their annual Arab Talent award, which was given to Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri last year. His film The Insult was later nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. The festival’s partnership with Festival Scope has also been renewed, allowing festival guests to access the platform’s library of films during the festival and for 10 days after it ends. GFF has a new partnership with Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). As part of this cooperation, GFF has nominated three Arab films for the consideration of the 2018 APSA Awards.
Through GFF’s newly formed cooperation with UniFrance, an association administered by the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image, will facilitate a connection between French producers and distributors and GFF; allowing GFF’s programming team to preview their latest productions and projects in post production. With the help of UniFrance, GFF has selected six French films that will be screened at the festival this year. Some of the most important festivals in the world have the same partnership with UniFrance, such as Locarno, Toronto and Venice. From this year onwards, GFF will also be part of the official festival calendar on UniFrance’s website.
Additionally, GFF discloses its partnership with CBC as the main TV sponsor of the festival. CBC will be providing comprehensive coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as all the festival events and activities. GFF is happy to collaborate with CBC, one of the leading Egyptian networks that support the festival and Egyptian arts.
Says GFF founder Engineer Naguib Sawiris
What encouraged us to establish GFF was our firm belief in the key role of art — especially the 7th art — in the development of society on one hand, and our keen desire to challenge the regressive and fanatic ideas that seem to dominate the world on the other hand. It is this conviction that drives us to continue this journey, hoping that more like-minded and committed people will join it and help us take it forward.
El Gouna founder and one of GFF’s central supporters, Samih Sawiris adds
For the second year in a row, GFF is planning to turn El Gouna into a hub of international celebrities, filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the globe. Its inaugural round was a big success; not only for the festival team, but also for the entire town of El Gouna, which played a major role in creating a unique experience of culture and entertainment for the festival’s guests. It is a work in progress, which will hopefully place El Gouna among the most prestigious centers of art, such as Cannes or Locarno.
Last year, three screening halls were renovated, refurbished and equipped with state-of-the-art projection and sound systems for the festival. I am proud to note that these cinemas were in use throughout the year. We hope our experience inspires other cities in Egypt to develop cultural infrastructure by embracing film festivals and other artistic events.
GFF’s management confirms that it intends to continue with a reasonable budget and the right circumstances to attract the right sponsors for the festival. Last year’s edition was mainly financed by Engineers Samih Sawiris and Naguib Sawiris, yet this year the festival relies on its main sponsors Orascom Development Egypt and Orascom Investment, in association with Attijariwafa Bank Egypt, Orange, El Gouna, Beltone Financial, Mara, Makadi Heights, Carrier, JWT, Careem.
The backgrounds of the two founders, Samih Sawiris and Naguib Sawiris, are almost as interesting as the festival itself. Both received diplomas in engineering before developing extensive international businesses of their father’s Orascom conglomerate.
Samih Sawiris, Orascom Development Chairman, was born in Cairo on the 28th of January 1957 as the middle son among three sons of Onsi Sawiris, founder and president of Orascom conglomerate. He received his Diploma in economic engineering from the Technical University of Berlin in 1980, Samih is married and has 5 children.
He is the founder and Chairman of Orascom Development Holding (ODH.SW), a Swiss- incorporated company listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX). Orascom Development is a leading developer of fully integrated destinations that include hotels, private villas and apartments, leisure facilities such as golf courses, marinas and supporting infrastructure. Orascom Development’s diversified portfolio of destinations is spread over nine jurisdictions (Switzerland, Egypt, Montenegro, Oman, UAE, Jordan and Morocco). The Group currently owns 35 hotels, with 8,135 guestrooms and over 1,000 rooms under development in the different countries. ODH operates eight destinations; Andermatt in Switzerland, Four in Egypt: El Gouna, Taba Heights, Haram City and Makadi; The Cove in United Arab Emirates and Jebel Sifah and Salalah Beach in Oman.
Samih is a major shareholder of Orascom Construction Industries (OCI N.V.) a Dutch based global producer of natural gas-based chemicals and engineering and construction contractor with projects and investments across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. He is also a significant stake holder in Lafarage (LG.FP); world leader in building material & major player in the cement, aggregates and concrete industries, operating in 64 countries and listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.
In addition, Samih is a member of Sawiris Foundation which was founded in April 2001, with an endowment from the Sawiris family, dedicated to social development.
Naguib Sawiris founded Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH) and led it to become the leading regional telecom player until the much-publicized merger deal with VEON (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.), creating the world’s sixth largest mobile telecommunications provider in April 2011.
Mr. Sawiris is Executive Chairman of Orascom Investment Holding, a holding company investing in industries that are critical to shaping the future, including energy, financial services, agri-industries, real estate development, logistics and transport.
Mr. Sawiris is Chairman of La Mancha Holding, an international gold producer sitting on the board of Evolution Mining, the second largest gold producer in Australia, and Endeavour Mining, Africa’s third largest gold producer.
Mr. Sawiris is also Chairman of Ora, a company undertaking high-end real estate developments in various prime locations around the world.
In 2015, Mr. Sawiris managed the acquisition of 53% of Euronews, Europe’s leading news channel, through Media Globe Networks (MGN), a company owned by the Sawiris Family. In 2017, MGN increased its ownership to 60% after the recent entry of NBC into Euronews through a capital increase. He also has ownership in several assets in the media business in Egypt.
Mr. Sawiris holds a diploma of Mechanical Engineering with a Masters in Technical Administration from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich) and a Diploma from the German Evangelical School, Cairo, Egypt.
GFF director Intishal Al Timimi says
With GFF’s second edition, we are still pursuing the same objectives we started with last year: to create a lineup with a balance between acclaimed and awarded films, and to secure certain titles to premiere in the festival. All films participating in the second edition of GFF were produced in 2018, and their screening in the festival marks their Arab premiere.
We are still as enthusiastic as we were when we first conceived the idea for this festival, and this year we are striving to present an even more memorable experience for all our guests and audiences.
Intishal Al Timimi, the Director of El Gouna Film Festival was born in 1954 in Baghdad, has a master’s degree in Journalism from Moscow University and is a well-known figure in the international film festival circuit. His entire career has been dedicated to passionately helping the Arab cinematic voices and enabling them to evolve through dialogue with their counterparts whether inside or outside the Arab world. His efforts in this direction have been appreciated by all stakeholders, Arab as well as non-Arab.
He has pursued his passion through several important positions and associations in the last 30 years. Some of these include working as the artistic director of the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam (2001-2009), program advisor of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2004-2011), coordinator of 30 years Arab Documentaries at the International Film Festival Munich, curator of the Tribute to Johan van der Keuken, coordinator of 10 years of European Cinema at Ismailia International Film Festival, programmer of the Iraqi Retrospective at the Biennale des Cinémas Arabes à Paris (2004), and programmer at the Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian, Arab and Indian Cinema (20042009-).
Al Timimi was in the core group of the prestigious Abu Dhabi Film Festival and served there as a programmer (2008-2010), the director of Arab programming (2011-2014) and the director of Sanad Film Fund (2010-2015). Under his leadership, the Sanad Film Fund has supported several projects that have since been completed, acclaimed and awarded at the most prestigious festivals around the world.
Intishal is often invited to international film festivals around the world as a jury member. He has served as juror at the Parma Film Festival in Italy (1989), International Documentary Film Festival in Munich (1997), Singapore International Film Festival (2005), Ismailia International Film Festival in Egypt (2006), Amal-International Euro Arab Film Festival in Santiago de Compostela (2008), Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia (2010), Guanajuato International Film Festival in Mexico (2013), International Film Festival Munich (2014) and many more, where he often moderates or speaks on panels related particularly to Arab cinema.
He is a member of the advisory board of NETPAC (Network for the Promoting of Asian Cinema). He has served as a member and president of the NETPAC jury in some of the most prestigious festivals such as Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Kerala and Toronto.
Intishal Al Timimi is also a designer and an avid photographer. His photographic work has been displayed in exhibitions around the world, and his designs, particularly book covers for Arabic literature, are well published.
Bushra Rozza
COO and Co-founder of El Gouna Film Festival
Bushra Ahmed Abdalla Rozza is an Egyptian actress, singer, television host and producer. Bushra was born and raised in Cambridge, UK, where she spent her early years with her parents who both were working and studying there. Since childhood, Bushra showed interest in visual and performing arts and participated in almost all school plays in leading roles. She also attended ballet classes for eleven years under the supervision of renowned instructor Laura Laurella.
On her return to Egypt, given her multicultural background and multilingual skills, Bushra participated in many cultural conferences and volunteered for many years at Al Jeel Center for Youth and Social Studies on the Partial Care for Working Children / Child Labor project under the supervision of her father — the late scholar, social reformer and activist Dr. Ahmed Abdalla Rozza.
Her first cinema appearance was at the age of nine when American director Michal Goldman cast her in a documentary. At the age of eleven, Goldman chose Bushra for a special documentary about legendary Egyptian singer Um Kalthoum called Sound of Egypt.
Bushra started her television career at the age of fifteen when she became the youngest correspondent in the Middle East for Dubai TV and Abu Dhabi TV. She also presented her own shows on Dream TV and her radio show on Nogoum FM, before deciding at the age of seventeen to pursue her acting career with the Middle East’s first-ever sitcom Shabab Online.
Bushra was cast by the iconic Egyptian director Youssef Chahine in an important role in his movie Alexandria, New York. Afterwards, she participated in a number of successful television shows, feature films and blockbusters.
At the same time, Bushra’s artistic sense exposed her to other forms of art including singing, when she sang a duet with Mahmoud El Esseily called Tabat We Nabat, which became a very successful hit, and was the bestselling single in the MENA region at the time. She then released her first album, Baad el Gharam.
Bushra started her journey as a filmmaker in 2007 when she acted as the producer and deputy CEO of Dollar Film and New Century film production companies. During her 5-year tenure she was able to produce 13 successful long narrative features films. She was the executive producer and actor in the movie 678 which discussed sexual harassment, and she received a huge recognition for her role in it, winning multiple awards including the Best Actress Award at the 2010 Dubai International Film Festival. She also co-produced the movie Asmaa which discussed the case of a woman infected with HIV and the social stigma surrounding the ailment.
Bushra has served on the jury of many film festivals including the second Mobile Film Festival, for the human rights competition in Cairo International Film Festival, as well as Alexandria Short Film Festival in 2014 and many others. Bushra is still engaged in her career as an actor and singer and film producer.
Amr Mansi
CEO & CO-Founder of El Gouna Film Festival
Amr Mansi is a former PSA World Tour player who is ranked amongst the top 50 players worldwide. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of El Gouna Film Festival. Mansi is also the founder and CEO of I-Events, the organizing company of El Gouna International Squash Open and Orascom Development PSA Women’s World Championship.
In his mid-twenties, Mansi had the vision to organize an international squash tournament in Egypt, providing new opportunities for the Egyptian players to succeed in their homeland, with the aim of making Egypt the number one destination for squash. Mansi succeeded in turning his dreams into reality in 2010 when he founded El Gouna International Tournament which is one of the world’s biggest squash events that has carried on six editions so far.
In an effort to boost tourism and further develop the athletic field in Egypt, Mansi also revived Al-Ahram Squash Open, a tournament that used to be held at the Giza pyramids, but closed down 10 years ago and was never brought back to life until 2016. Furthermore, he organized the Alexandria International Squash Open Tournament which was held at the iconic Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Prior to that, Mansi was the head coach of Sporting Club’s squash team in Alexandria, as well as a squash coach to the Egyptian national squash team in 2014, leading them to victory in the World Squash Championship U19. In August 2014, Mansi received Egypt’s First Class Sports Award from President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
Mansi was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on June 13, 1982. He graduated from the Arab Academy for Science and Technology in Alexandria with a degree in business administration.
Kamal Zadeh
CFO and Co-Founder of El Gouna Film Festival
Kamal Zadeh is the CFO and co-founder of El Gouna Film Festival, the organizing company of El Gouna Film Festival. Prior to that, he served as a producer during his years of work at the October Films production company, of which he was a former partner.
Before founding The Festival, Zadeh was the business development manager for the Catwalk Fashion Line in Abu Dhabi; where he was responsible for building and developing the label from scratch, setting up and organizing all events and photo shoots, following up on finishing all the documentation and setting up the HR system. Zadeh was also responsible for setting up the workshop place for production, and assuring the quality of products before display.
Zadeh later joined Al Futtaim Group’s Trading Enterprises in Abu Dhabi, where he assisted in closing deals, while managing finance and insurance work.
After that, he joined Trans Asia Trading Company in Dubai where he served as the business development manager. During his years there, he handled the shipments from port to port, finalized the related documentation, built and upgraded the company’s IT system, and developed a tracking system to make it more user-friendly. He is also credited for succeeding in increasing trades from $500K to $1.2K per month.
Zadeh was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1977. He graduated from the University of Calicut in India with a master’s degree in sales and marketing. Having attended the DEO School in Egypt, Zadeh is fluent in German and English.
Other Team Members
