As the Cairo Intl. Film Festival celebrates 50 years since its founding, president Hussein Fahmy wants younger Egyptians to rediscover their country’s rich cinematic heritage. For the veteran actor, introducing new audiences to the films that established Egypt as the Arab world’s cinematic capital is central to the festival’s future.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the 47th edition, which runs Nov. 11–20, Fahmy emphasized the importance of preserving that legacy. “This remains my dream, to have this young generation aware of our history, of how Egyptian cinema was actually dominating the whole Middle East.” He sees the festival as an important platform for bringing that history to new audiences, particularly through screenings of restored Egyptian classics.
Fahmy also wants Cairo to stand alongside the world’s major film festivals, an ambition he believes depends on building audiences’ confidence in its programming. “The more credibility the Cairo Film Festival has for the spectator, the more they trust us with the movies that we bring, with the jury that we select,” he said.
Cairo’s credibility was shaken somewhat following news that one of the films in Critics’ Week competition, “Dancing Angels,” had been pulled from the lineup, before the invitation was eventually restored, although the filmmaking team then declined the opportunity to premiere the film there. (See full story here.)
But attracting audiences, Fahmy acknowledges, is an increasingly unpredictable undertaking. “The situation, whether it be the social situation, whether it be the international situation, is affecting the taste of the spectator. It’s affecting the mood of the spectator,” he said.
This year’s edition brings together 145 films from 64 countries, including 17 world premieres, five international premieres and 87 Middle East and North Africa premieres. The lineup spans acclaimed international directors, emerging Arab filmmakers and restored Egyptian classics, alongside new programs aimed at younger audiences.
The festival opens with “I Play Rocky,” directed by Peter Farrelly (“Green Book,” 2019 Academy Awards best picture winner), which chronicles Sylvester Stallone’s struggle to bring his screenplay for “Rocky” to the screen while insisting on playing the lead role himself. The selection carries particular significance for the anniversary edition as the original “Rocky” was released in 1976, the same year CIFF was founded.
The international competition includes two Egyptian productions: Ashgan El-Hamus’ “Al Baraneya,” about a family living among jasmine fields outside Cairo whose livelihood is threatened by a landowner’s persistent offer to purchase their property, and the world premiere of Ahmad Abdalla’s “BerleeN_,” which follows three Arab strangers confronting their pasts over the course of a day in the German capital. The feature is produced by Film Clinic, the Cairo-based production outfit headed by veteran producer and former CIFF director Mohamed Hefzy.
Other regional contenders include Lebanese filmmaker Nadim Tabet’s “In the Darkness I See You,” a supernatural drama set around a construction site where tensions rise between Syrian workers and Lebanese villagers, and Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi’s “Strawberries,” which follows Moroccan seasonal workers facing exploitation on farms in southern Spain. The latter premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and is Morocco’s submission for the international feature Oscar.
The 12-film competition also features “Heysel 85,” from Romanian-Belgian director Teodora Ana Mihai, which revisits the deadly 1985 football stadium disaster in Brussels that left 39 people dead; Austrian director Adrian Goiginger’s “Four Minus Three,” about a professional clown coping with the loss of her family; and Iranian filmmaker Morteza Alizadeh’s “Inherited,” which follows a woman on death row who learns that pregnancy is her only way to delay her execution. “Inherited” will have its world premiere in Cairo.
Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch heads the international competition jury, whose members include Chinese actor Fan Bingbing and Belgian director Laura Wandel.
The Horizons of Arab Cinema competition includes seven films, among them the world premiere of Egyptian director Sara Shazli’s documentary “Your Daughter.” Shazli explores her relationship with her mother, filmmaker and producer Marianne Khoury, niece of legendary Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. As she prepares to become a mother herself, Shazli reflects on how Khoury’s lifelong devotion to cinema shaped her childhood.
Also making its world premiere is Iraqi director Ali Toffan Al-Fatlawi’s “Al Baseer – The Blind Ferryman,” which follows a blind ferryman living in the marshes of southern Iraq who falls in love with a mysterious woman whose existence no one else believes.
Other Horizons selections include Algerian filmmaker Mia Bendrimia’s documentary “Magma,” which delves into the effects of colonialism on her family across Algeria and France, and Lebanese director Rania Rafei’s “The Day of Wrath: Tales from Tripoli,” tracing decades of political and social upheaval in the northern Lebanese city.
The out-of-competition lineup features internationally acclaimed films, including Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “Minotaur,” Emin Alper’s Berlin Silver Bear winner “Salvation” and Valeska Grisebach’s Cannes Jury Prize winner “The Dreamed Adventure.” Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda is represented by two films, “Look Back” and 2026 Palme d’Or nominee “Sheep in the Box,” while other selections include Radu Jude’s “The Diary of a Chambermaid,” Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s “Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved.”
The festival’s commitment to Egyptian film history is particularly visible in its Restored Egyptian Classics program, launched last year and featuring 27 titles in this edition. Among them are Salah Abu Seif’s “Cairo 30” and “The Second Wife,” Henry Barakat’s “The Sin,” Youssef Chahine’s “The People and the Nile” and Hassan el-Imam’s adaptations of Naguib Mahfouz’s “Palace Walk” and “Palace of Desire.”
“I find that the festival is a very good platform to screen all the restored movies of Egyptian cinema, of its black and white cinema,” Fahmy emphasized. “It’s a wonderful history and I would love everyone to be aware of it as they go into the future.”
The anniversary edition will also honor filmmakers Matteo Garrone and Abderrahmane Sissako with Golden Pyramid Honorary Awards for Lifetime Achievement, alongside Egyptian screenwriter Medhat El Adl and cinematographer Saeed Shimi. Egyptian actor Asser Yassin will receive the Faten Hamama Award for Excellence.
The festival is also expanding its efforts to reach younger audiences through its New Wave program, a new Cairo Kids section and an extended reality program. Its industry arm, Cairo Industry Days, running Nov. 14–19, will host masterclasses and conversations with filmmakers and industry figures, alongside financing, training and networking opportunities, particularly for filmmakers from the Arab world.
For Fahmy, the festival’s future ultimately depends on building on Egypt’s cinematic legacy while attracting a new generation of filmgoers. “As the festival gets older, I want it to become younger,” Fahmy reflected.
