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Mohamed Hefzy: The Artistic team started work last February... and we are targeting a selection of approximately 100 feature films.

The Cairo International Film Festival announces the opening of registration for films wishing to participate in the festival’s 43rd edition which will be held from the 1st till the 10th of December 2021.

Submissions from all over the world will be received until the 31st of August 2021 through the official festival website for feature-length and short films as well as through Film Freeway for the registration of short films only.

Producer and president of the festival, Mohamed Hefzy, states that the concentration of Arab festivals in a period of only two months towards the end of the year has made this edition more challenging than the previous years. Given the rise in competition for premieres in the region of the most important Arabic and International films, the Artistic team began work last February on securing some of the most unique and diverse films to the festival’s program, targeting a selection of approximately 100 films in the festival’s various sections and competitions.

With regards to the challenges related to the Covid Pandemic, Hefzy expressed his optimism in holding the 43rd edition in safer circumstances. The efforts of countries worldwide, including Egypt, in distributing the vaccine to their populations should result in improvement of the current state of the pandemic and a relaxation of the restrictions set by the virus, especially with regards to travel, opening of theaters, and social gatherings.

Adding: just like we did not lose hope last year and successfully held the festival, we will not lose hope this year either. We will do our utmost best to organise a hygienically safe and artistically superior edition, while complying with all the sanitary measures and regulations set by the Egyptian Government and the World Health Organisation.

The 42nd edition witnessed the participation of 95 films representing more than 40 countries, of which 20 films saw their world and international premieres. The program also included Gala MENA premieres of The Father and Nomadland, which collectively won five academy awards earlier this year.

The festival honored, in its 42nd edition, three prominent figures in cinema. Two received the honorary Golden Pyramid Award for lifetime achievement; the renowned author, Wahid Hamed and the Academy Award winning British author and director, Christopher Hampton who lived a part of his childhood in Egypt between the cities of Alexandria and Suez. The third honoree was the superstar Mona Zaki who was awarded the Faten Hamama Excellence Award.

The Cairo International Film Festival is the oldest international annual festival in the Middle East and North African and the only one accredited as Category A by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations in Paris (FIAPF), alongside 14 other festivals organising international competitions.

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