Through this collaboration, the El Gouna Film Festival aims to reach a large number of audiences, especially emerging filmmakers who cannot attend the festival.
O West, one of the integrated towns of Orascom Development in west Cairo, and El Gouna Film Festival have announced their partnership in Cairo with the premiere of five short films from the festival’s fifth edition.
This comes as part of a collaboration to organise a series of artistic activities, aiming to support and expand communication with emerging filmmakers, industry professionals and film students by providing them with the opportunity to connect with their favourite artists, view cinematic content and learn about the art of cinema through monthly panels, workshops, masterclasses, events, and film screenings.
The screening event, organised by O West and El Gouna Film Festival, was attended by Tarek Kamel, CEO of O West, Intishal Al Timimi, Director of El Gouna Film Festival, a group of artists, members of the press and media and students from various film schools, the High Cinema Institute, Jesuits Cairo Film School, the German University in Cairo, and the American University in Cairo.
Speaking about the collaboration, which is part of Orascom Development’s strategy to support art, culture, sports and entrepreneurship to discover talent and empower young talents, Tarek Kamel said: “O West is keen to continue El Gouna Film Festival’s activities year-round in Cairo to connect with the largest number of young filmmakers, and create an interactive platform of discussions, workshops and shared experiences, with the aim to develop artistic content and reinforce young innovative ideas.”
Intishal Al Timimi added: “El Gouna Film Festival is considered one of the top film festivals that young creatives seek to showcase their works to audiences and film professionals in Egypt and the Arab world. The collaboration between O West and GFF reinforces the festival’s message by spreading film culture among young talents year-round, creating an interactive platform that allows them to express and develop their creative works.”
The launch event witnessed the screening of five short films from four countries: Egypt, Switzerland, Jordan, and Russia at Zamalek Cinema. The programme included two films from Egypt; Ahmed Abdelsalam’s CAI – BER and Morad Mostafa’s Khadiga, both films had their world premiere at GFF and international premiere at the official competition of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Other films include Samer Battikhi’s Arnoos from Jordan, which also had its world premiere during the fifth edition of GFF; from Switzerland Strangers by Nora Longatti; and from Russia Katia by Andrey Natotcinskiy, winner of El Gouna Golden Star for Short Film.
The collaboration between O West and El Gouna Film Festival was announced during the fifth edition of GFF. The activities should take place between March and June 2022.
In addition, O West will host exclusive screenings in Cairo for selected films from GFF’s film programme in parallel with the festival’s yearly edition.
