The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

El Gouna Film Festival is all wrapped up, and everyone has gone home after days spent in heaven on Earth. Beautiful weather, gorgeous views, and marvelous movies. What more could you ask for?

Despite El Gouna Film Festival being hosted in Egypt, it still remains a completely unbiased event, where all films have an equal chance of snatching the prize. Today, however, we are going to be a bit biased ourselves and tell you all about the Egyptian movies that won.

In the short movies category, Kamel El Basha, president of the reviewing board, says that he has deliberated for six long meetings with the members of the board, Ahmed Malek and Saba Mubarak. Kamel added, “we discussed the details of 23 movies that all had special and amazing elements one way or another.” It was obvious the decision was going to be quite difficult, but we’re proud to see that Ma Te’alash ‘an El-Hageb won El Gouna Gold Star for Best Short Film.

Director, Tamer Ashry, commented on his win by saying that he is very proud of this win, and that he considers his film career to have started with El Gouna Film Festival. Ashry’s previous movie, PhotoCopy, has won a number of awards in different international festivals. Tamer added, “we hope the festival keeps going for years to come, we come here to meet artists and see movies, so please do not discontinue El Gouna Film Festival.”

As for the Cinema for Humanity Audience Award, it was actually shared between two movies, Yomeddine, and Youm Akher El Hayah. Abu Bakr Shawky, director of Yomeddine, thanked El Gouna Film Festival, and added “we just made a small movie in the hopes of making a difference.”

But Abu Bakr Shawky  had another chance on the stage, as his movie Yomeddine won El Gouna Gold Star for a Narrative Film, showing furthermore, that Yomeddine is not only a brilliant movie in its humanitarian message, but also in its execution as an enticing dramatic movie. Abu Bakr Shawky thanked two special people in his acceptance speech, Rady Gamal and Ahmed Abdelhafiz. Rady Gamal is a real-life leprosy patient, and Abu Bakr Shawky insisted on having him take the lead role, and we were delighted to see Rady Gamal attend the festival sending a powerful message to everyone in the world about acceptance, inclusivity, and representation.

All in all, El Gouna Film Festival provided more than a full-course meal for cinema lovers. Don’t believe us? Well, just watch as rising star Sarrah Abdelrahman commentates on the emotional rollercoaster that she experienced while attending the festival’s many screenings.