The annual event is a key platform for Arab Cinema that continues to attract submissions from international filmmaking talent.
El Gouna Film Festival has announced the dates for the upcoming three editions as a part of its pledge to support and foster the industry and filmmakers in the region.
The sixth edition will take place from October 13-21, 2022, the seventh edition will take place from October 12-20, 2023 and the eighth edition will take place October from 17-25, 2024.
Festival Director Intishal Al Timimi said: “What matters to us by the end of each edition is what it will add to future ones, specifically the changes that happen on structural and administrative levels. As we look forward to our sixth edition, we aspire to achieve the best results that are only acquired through our accumulated experiences from previous years.”
There is no doubt that the fifth edition of the festival witnessed a series of events and incidents that garnered mixed media coverage, which only added to the festival’s mission of encouraging discussion. These events showed the strong determination and dedication of the festival’s team, helmed by Intishal Al Timimi and the core senior management; Co-Founder and COO Bushra Roza, Executive Director Amal El Masri, Artistic Director Amir Ramses and General Manager Kamal Zadeh, to create a modern and interactive edition out of these challenging circumstances, the organiser said.
The fifth edition of GFF presented 76 films that varied from fiction, animation, documentary to shorts. 10 films had their world and international premieres, all of which were shown for the first time in the MENA region. CineGouna Platform witnessed success for its industry arms CineGouna Bridge, with its activities and CineGouna Platform, where 19 projects in development and post-production stages were provided technical and artistic guidance and financial support, either through official festival awards or grants from sponsors, which exceeded $280,000.
Alongside these projects, CineGouna Bridge hosted a series of masterclasses, panel discussions and workshops, the most prominent of which was a masterclass by American director Darren Aranofosky and a conversation with Polish actor Zbigniew Zamachowski, in addition to panels such as Cinema as an Agent for Social Change and Depicting Ancient Egypt in Film.
The Khaled Bichara Award attracted the participation of 120 young Egyptian filmmakers, and the Palestinian Film Lab competition stimulated many young Arab participants.
