El Gouna Film Festival is back again with its second edition, which means double the fun! This year, GFF will be screening 15 films in the Feature Narrative Competition, 12 films in the Feature Documentary Competition, and 23 films in the Short Film Competition, as well as 5 films in GFF’s special retrospectives program, and 25 films out of competition, which means 80 titles in total; 10 more films than last year’s festival!
The festival will be attended by GFF founder Engineer Naguib Sawiris and El Gouna founder Engineer Samih Sawiris. Also attending are the Minister of Tourism Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, 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.
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.
Getting down to business, this year’s Creative Achievement Award goes to the iconic Egyptian director Daoud Abdel Sayed and the Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha.
Some of our favorite stars who will be attending the festival include Mona Zaki, Saba Mubarak, renowned actress Yousra, acclaimed filmmaker Yousry Nasrallah and Tunisian actress Hend Sabri, in addition to Career Achievement Award honoree Daoud Abdel Sayed.
Among those attending will be filmmakers and cast members of some of the
participating films, including Yomeddine’s A.B. Shawky and Dina Emam, Gunshot’s Karim El Shenawy, Haitham Dabbour, Ruby, Ahmed Malek, Mohamed Mamdouh and Asmaa Abul-yazeid; the stars of the short film Fork and Knife Asser Yassin and Menna Shalaby, in addition to the director of documentary film Dream Away, Marouan Omara.
All serious filmmaking business aside, we know what to expect from last year! All eyes will be on celebrities’ dresses, style, hair and makeup, and more! GFF will take place in El Gouna from September 20th to the 28th. Stay tuned to our daily social media coverage on Facebook and Instagram of one of the most talked about events of the year!
