The only A-list film event both in Africa and in the MENA region, the Cairo International Film Festival will take place from 13-22 November and will screen 97 films from 52 countries, 29 of which will be world or international premieres. While the Honorary Golden Pyramids for Lifetime Achievement will be given to Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr and Egyptian actress Lebleba, known for her work in the 1970s (also partly influencing the movies featured in the Cairo Classics retrospective section), and the Faten Hamama Excellence Award will be bestowed upon Egyptian filmmaker Kamla Abu Zekry, the seven-member jury chaired by Japanese helmer Naomi Kawase will have to decide which of the fresh titles and contemporary filmmakers will earn their Golden, Silver and Bronze Pyramids, along with other awards.

This year’s International Competition includes a total of 14 film titles, five of which will be getting their world premieres. The European presence in the main competitive category is strong once again this time around: nine of the competing films are European productions or co-productions, and two of them will world-premiere at Cairo. Those world-premiering European titles are Nicolas Giraud’s The Astronaut [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Eleonora Veninova
scheda film] (North Macedonia/Serbia), while three more hail from other regions, such as Ahmad Abdalla’s 19B (Egypt), I Don’t Want to Be Dust (Mexico/Argentina) by Iván Löwenberg, and Ridha Behi’s The Island of Forgiveness (Tunisia/Lebanon/USA). Other European majority productions include Damian Kocur’s Bread and Salt [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Damian Kocur
scheda film] (Poland), Maksym Nakonechnyi’s Butterfly Vision [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maksym Nakonechnyi
scheda film] (Ukraine/Czech Republic/Croatia/Sweden), Pierre Földes’ animated feature Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Pierre Földes
scheda film] (France/Canada/Netherlands/Luxembourg), Ali Cherri’s The Dam [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ali Cherri
scheda film] (France/Lebanon/Sudan/Qatar/Germany/Serbia), Firas Khoury’s Alam [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emmanuelle Nicot
intervista: Emmanuelle Nicot, Julie Es…
scheda film] (Belgium/France). There is also one minority co-production, Something You Said Last Night [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Luis De Filippis
scheda film] (Canada/Switzerland) by Luis De Filippis.

European productions and co-productions will also be represented in two other parallel competition sections. The French-Lebanese co-production Mother Valley [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Valentina Maurel
scheda film], Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Pamfir [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
intervista: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
scheda film] and Michal Blaško’s Victim [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michal Blaško
scheda film].

The Main Selection – Out of Competition will also screen some European titles that are well known from the festival circuit, such as Carla Simón’s Alcarràs [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Carla Simón
intervista: Carla Simón
intervista: Giovanni Pompili
scheda film], Lukas Dhont’s Close [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Eden Dambrine
intervista: Lukas Dhont
intervista: Lukas Dhont
scheda film], Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maryna Er Gorbach
scheda film], Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Mario Martone’s Nostalgia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Mario Martone
intervista: Pierfrancesco Favino
scheda film], Florian Zeller’s The Son [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Cristian Mungiu
intervista: Judith State
scheda film]. The same could also be said for the Special Screenings programme, the non-competitive International Panorama and the genre-orientated Midnight Screenings.

As for the festival’s industry section, the fifth edition of the Cairo Industry Days will take place from 17-22 November, taking in a selection of master classes (given by, among others, Lifetime Achievement Award winner Béla Tarr and jury president Naomi Kawase), workshops (again, Béla Tarr and US cinematographer Irvin Liu, to name just a few), and a number of panels and talks with two other winners of Honorary Awards, Kamla Abu Zekry and Lebleba. On top of this, 15 film projects at various stages, from development to post-production, coming from ten countries in the Middle East-North Africa region will be pitched at the ninth Cairo Film Connection.