Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans has been announced as the opening film of 44th Cairo International Film Festival, running from November 13 to 22.
This year’s edition of the historic Egyptian festival will unfold under the direction of a new management team following the departure of former head Mohamed Hefzy in March.
Veteran actor Hussein Fahmy returns as president at the festival, a role he held in the past, while respected Egyptian film programmer Amir Ramses has taken up the baton of artistic director.
This year’s main International Competition features Ahmad Abdalla’s 19B (Egypt), Firas Khoury’s Alam (Palestine), Nicolas’s Giraud’s The Astronaut (France), Pierre Földes’s Blind Willow Sleeping Woman (France), Damian Kocur’s Bread And Salt (Poland), Maksym Nakonechnyi’s Butterfly Vision (Ukraine), Ali Cherri’s The Dam (France, Lebanon), Ivan Löwenberg’s I Don’t Want To Be Dust (Mexico), Ridha Behi’s The Island Of Forgiveness (Tunisia), Emmanuelle Nicot’s Love According To Dalva by (Belgium), Kei Ishikawa’s A Man (Japan), Luis De Filippis’s Something You Said Last Night (Canada), Eleonora Veninova’s Things Unsaid (Macedonia) and Gregorio Graziosi’s Tinnitus (Brazil).
As previously announced, Naomi Kawase will preside over the main jury. Freshly announced jury members include Egyptian cinematographer Nancy Abdelfattah, Indian actress Swara Bhasker, Egyptian music composer Rageh Daoud, Italian actress Stefania Casini, Mexican filmmaker Joaquin Del Paso and Moroccan actor Samir Guesmi.
There will also be Out of Competition screenings for a slew of award-winning festival hits including Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, Lukas Dhont’s Close, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, Laura Mora’s The Kings Of The World (Colombia) and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer.
Cairo is also an important date for Middle East and North Africa talent, which it highlights via its Horizons Of Arab Cinema Competition and Cairo Film Connection event, showcasing upcoming projects from the region looking for international partners.
The seven films competing in the Arab world-focused competition this year span Merzak Allouache’s The Family (Algeria), Sherief Elkatsha’s Far From The Nile (Egypt), Mounia Meddour’s Houria (France, Algeria), Hassan Benjelloun’s Jaladine (Morocco), Joad Said’s Joseph’s Journey (Syria), Carlos Chahine’s Mother Valley (France, Lebanon) and Bassem Breche’s Riverbed (Lebanon).
Incoming artistic director, Ramses explained he felt a weight of responsibility in taking on the role at the festival, where he had been first introduced to cinema as a youngster and later shown his own films.
“Being appointed in a position, which was taken by many prestigious names on top of which is my valued mentor, the late film critic and programmer Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, was a way to give back and pay my respect to an institution that made me the filmmaker I am today before it was a new step in my professional career,” he said.